Penumbra
by The Phiend
Summary: Post-Eclipse. No nightmare holds more despair than one you could prevent.
1. Chapter 1

_(Author's Note: Still don't own Star Wars. Also, this story is a followup to my other Star Wars fic,_ Eclipse _, and takes place several days after its end...but familiarity shouldn't be required.)_

* * *

"This is the _third_ time we've been sent someplace else in this blasted spaceport," the muscular human complained as the group walked down another alley. "Is there _any_ chance the part you're looking for is actually _here_ , or are they just taking our money and sending us in circles?"

" _My_ money," Sareena countered, "and if you have a better idea, I'm all ears." Ahsoka reminded herself that the vibrant red braid was attached to the same woman who sported a loose blonde mass when they'd met; human hair was incredibly versatile compared to Togruti head-tails.

"I don't think we're going in circles, Rian." Ahsoka offered casually.

"And how would _you_ know, _Laani_?" he growled, in an utterly ineffective attempt to intimidate her.

She sighed. She'd just started using the assumed name a few days ago and it was _already_ getting old. "I've dealt with more than a few Rodians. This last guy was worried about you coming back to beat the bantha out of him, if he lied."

"So what, we're just supposed to trust him?"

"Heck no. They've had plenty of time to form a posse. We're heading in the right direction, but we might have some... _active_ company."

"Fine by me," he proclaimed, "all this walking nowhere is getting on my nerves."

A small voice behind Ahsoka snorted. "Easy for _you_ to say, Mr. Gundark," it said.

Ahsoka glanced back at her; the woman made eye contact and gave a weak smile in response. She wasn't sure whether the black attire was a fashion decision, or whether she was prepared to pass herself off as an Imperial officer at a moment's notice.

"Just relax, Beril. They won't want to start a fight in their own chop shop."

She sighed. "I know how shadowports work, Laani. And I'm not worried about _them_ starting a fight," she said as she pointedly glared up at the back of Rian's head.

He scoffed. "It's no fun until they _deserve_ to be beaten to a pulp," he said, cracking his knuckles for emphasis.

Sareena exhaled in frustration. "Don't take a loose view of 'deserving'. We're not here to _cause_ a problem."

"Of course not," he answered with annoyed sarcasm.

Recognizing the sign for the warehouse that was the facade for their destination, Ahsoka spoke up before an argument could ensue. "Here we are...huh. All this exposed framework and no rust?"

"Unlike a space salvager to be this concerned with the appearance of their planetside operation," Beril expounded. "The owner's either wealthy or secondhand, and the only person in this port who _might_ be wealthy is here with us."

Sareena sighed. "Then _no one_ here is wealthy. Now come on."

* * *

Ahsoka and Beril hurried to catch up with the others, after a few awkward seconds where they both waited for the other to go in first. By the time Ahsoka reached the open floor, Beril had already reached the rest of the group, who were already speaking with the proprietor.

"We need a replacement sublight drive for a light-freighter class vessel," Sareena stated.

"Nice of you to show up," Rian said as Ahsoka joined the others. She choked the urge to react stronger than throwing an apathetic glance in his direction. She noticed, however, that the Gran owner's three eyes quickly looked at her, then slowly turned back towards Sareena.

"So I've heard," he said. "But sadly I have nothing that will fit your ship."

Before Sareena could respond, Beril cut in. "Our client isn't picky. Anything in the size range will do, they'll make it fit. Between you and me, I think a catastrophic failure saved them the trouble of removing the _old_ engine."

"Ah, you're not in the market for the vessel you came in. In that case I _do_ have something that I think will suit your needs. Come with me, please."

As the group slowly moved towards the back, Ahsoka evaluated the defenses. A few scattered tables near walls and piles held pairs of guards, each with a blaster rifle close by. Rodians, Trandoshans, Duros...but no humans. Uncertain whether this was coincidence, nor what it would imply if it wasn't, Ahsoka resolved to keep track of the demographics. They seemed wary, but nothing out of the ordinary for the guards on duty.

"You know," the merchant was saying, "I don't usually keep entire engines on hand, everyone needs _parts_ for their repairs. If you'd come by a few days sooner I wouldn't have it, and if you'd come by a few days _later_ it'd have been scrapped for parts. You're in luck today."

"So why _did_ you keep this one on hand?" Sareena asked.

"It was a matter of..."

He cut himself off as Ahsoka quickly walked past him, wanting to inspect the engine as soon as it came into view.

It was certainly the right size, it appeared to be almost as tall as the huge bay doors it was situated near, and presumably the same doors it came in through. The configuration was odd, though: Aside from the main exhaust, it also had multiple miniature ports around its back half, arranged symmetrically but angled in conflicting directions; the computer interface port was in a nonstandard location; and the whole thing was cased in a reflective half-ellipsoid shell that hid the innards of the machinery. So the engine had the ability to stabilize its own flight path without relying on external thrusters or control surfaces, it was intentionally designed to be awkward to maintain, and it was supposed to look good in use from all angles. Which would mean...

"This come from a star yacht or something?" she asked.

"...well, yes." he answered.

"No wonder you've been keeping it around, it's a _lot_ more valuable with that chromium shell in one piece than all the components would be, even if they _weren't_ nonstandard parts that'd be a hassle to squeeze into a standard drive...much like the engine itself would be a hassle to squeeze into a standard _ship_."

"Still interested?"

Ahsoka calmly looked Sareena in the eye.

"Does it still _operate_?" Sareena asked, catching the hint.

"I assure you, _everything_ on the sale floor is in working condition."

"In that case, what price did you have in mind?"

"Seeing as this is a viable piece of high-end equipment...Twenty thousand."

Sareena shot an annoyed glance at Ahsoka. Asking Ahsoka if it was worth it.

"If you're _that_ proud of it," Ahsoka cut in, "you wouldn't mind if I ran a few diagnostics first, would you?"

She tensed as the guards around the room slowly rose to their feet. Beril noticed too, and her eyes started nervously darting around the room. Rian nonchalantly glanced at the shopkeeper, but Ahsoka noticed that his aloof posture had become a simple standing position; she noted that he was tall enough that he could probably reach over Sareena to punch the merchant in the face.

"Normally I _would_ mind," the merchant addressed Ahsoka directly. "Competitors with saboteurs, you see. But in _your_ case, my friend, I'll make an exception. Just this once."

"Appreciated," she replied nonchalantly as she looked at the top of the engine, where its dataport was. She caught herself thinking about simply leaping up to it before she did it, and quickly climbed up the footholds she found on the flat side instead. Sareena was the only other person in here who knew she was a Jedi, and Ahsoka wanted to keep it that way.

The smooth, curved surface wasn't the easiest thing to stand on, but it was no problem for her. Nevertheless, she knelt to connect her engineer's datapad to the engine and start the diagnostic procedure; she wanted a complete view of the floor below. The guards were all alert now, half of them watching her and the rest keeping an eye on the other three, but their weapons weren't _aimed_ anywhere, like they would be if they intended to prevent or _cause_ a problem. Their numbers hadn't changed either, so if anyone _had_ followed them here, they weren't willing to come inside.

"So Laani," Sareena said, "What's _your_ estimate of what this is worth?"

Ahsoka watched the pad as the results went by. "Well, the complication is that our client is going to _make_ it work. They'll crack the shiny casing open without hesitation, they aren't going to pay extra for anything past the propulsion. And whether the propulsion is good enough to justify twenty thousand credits is what I'm determining right _now_."

Rian huffed impatiently. "What if it _isn't_?"

Beril rolled her eyes. "Then we get a better deal or we walk, _duh_."

He hissed under his breath, but said nothing.

Since the summary of the procedure had just appeared on the datapad, Ahsoka decided to preemptively interrupt. "Eight years." she said with disinterest. "Older than I'd have guessed, but performance should be just fine." The identifying information she was _actually_ looking for wasn't appealing. It was from a ship of the same manufacturer, model and production run as the ship they were tracking down; but the individual identification didn't match. They'd found a part from the ship's cousin, apparently.

"Age is good," Beril said to no one in particular, "the cheapy ones don't last more than two or three years; that's how you tell which companies sell ships and which sell parts."

Ahsoka pondered for a second. So a part from the same model of ship, produced at the same factory in the same general time frame...was found in the same region of space as the last known location of their target, around the same time their target had disappeared...but somehow _wasn't_ the ship they were looking for?

She didn't believe it. "Anyway," she said before Sareena needed to ask, "I'd like to check the inside of it before I could recommend anything above eighteen."

Sareena quickly shot her an irritated glare. Ahsoka shrugged flatly in response. She was aware that she was basically dictating Sareena's fiscal discretion unless either of them wanted to blow their cover story, and she wasn't thrilled about how coercive it felt; but getting the merchant to let her perform further examination was the only way forward, short of actually committing to buy the engine on a long shot, and his sense of profit was all she had to work with.

"I don't think that request is reasonable," the shopkeeper countered.

Sareena took a deep breath through her nose. "And I don't think eighteen _thousand_ is reasonable."

He shook his head. "I won't go any lower."

"Hey," Beril asked softly, "do you want to go looking for another engine?"

"No," Rian answered flatly before Sareena could respond.

Ahsoka saw the opening. "Look, if everything in there is in top condition, it'll keep our client's project, or ship, or whatever, in working order for that much longer. That's worth at _least_ eighteen thousand, _isn't_ it?"

Sareena looked annoyed, but Ahsoka was sure that was only a show this time. "Fine," she said deliberately.

"Well then." Ahsoka turned to the merchant. "May I?"

He paused, presumably considering his options...and, she guessed, the odds of her planting a bomb inside the engine so his competition would have one less competitor. "And what, exactly, are you intending to look for?"

"Mostly seeing that all the cables are intact, and haven't been marred by fire, moisture, mynocks, whatever. Then running more tests to be sure that the cable positioning doesn't adversely affect readings, which could indicate wires exposed inside the cabling." Also looking for some sort of out-of-place mechanism that could enable falsified identification, but he didn't need to know that part.

He sharply turned his head to the side, and two of the guards swiftly moved over to opposite edges of the engine, watching her intently. They were close enough that she didn't need her eyes or the Force to tell they were taking up flanking positions without actually aiming their rifles at her. Either they didn't know about the echolocation common to all Togruta, or they didn't care.

"You are pushing the limits of my patience," the shopkeeper declared.

"Then help me quit wasting your time," she countered. "Yes or no?"

He sighed. "Proceed."

"Relax guys, I'll be fine," she said as she descended halfway down the flat side of the engine, before any of her compatriots could consider saying anything about her safety. They were in far more danger than she was, after all.

"If you don't try anything," the green-skinned Duros guard to her left said menacingly.

"Like I said," she replied calmly as she opened the panel on the engine casing. "Is the competition _really_ this cutthroat?" she asked idly as she peered at the cables inside the now-open compartment. "This is seriously the nicest ship business I've seen since the end of the Clone Wars."

"Yes," the merchant answered, "and that is why. Everything _I_ sell is in working condition, standards my _competitors_ do not adhere to. They find assaulting my merchandise easier than improving the quality of their own."

She moved her head around, exaggerating the movement while she took in the sights from several angles. Evidence of dust buildup, but no signs of actual damage. Most of the cables seemed tight and had little slack to maneuver, while a few...

"Hmm..." She slowly reached a hand in, keeping her attention on the two guards and her other hand poised against the engine in case she needed to move in a hurry. She gently pushed the loose-looking smooth cabling out of the way...and saw an industrial-looking switch hidden behind them, standing in stark contrast to the luxury motif of the entire engine. Reaching farther forward physically to flip the switch seemed unwise, with so many suspicious eyes on her, so she uncurled her little finger and reached out with the Force instead. The click was definite, but soft, as though the engine chamber was intended to muffle its own noise. Whoever designed this thing must have had a very clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish.

"Dusty," she declared as she withdrew her hand and closed the panel, "but looks undamaged. Whoever owned this last didn't see a need to maintain it beyond functional standards, but that's fine for our purposes. Just one more test to run..."

"Is such really _necessary_?" the shopkeeper asked with annoyance as she climbed back to the top.

She sighed in annoyance herself. "Look," she said flatly, "Our clients come to us because they want the job done _right_ , much as I imagine your own customers do. So we have to _prove_ that we're doing it right. Besides, you already let me run it once; if you're balking _now_ , after I've already told you what I'd be looking for...I'd have to be suspicious, _wouldn't_ I?"

He paused for only a moment. "Very well."

"Thank you," she replied, consciously pinning her sarcasm away from her voice, as she started an abbreviated version of the diagnostic procedure.

She heard Rian exhale loudly, without saying anything. He was definitely impatient, but apparently capable of holding his tongue; not that she would expect Sareena to bring him along if he was liable to cause problems. Still, realizing that he had been actively _choosing_ to be abrasive towards her altered her perception of him somewhat.

It didn't matter, though. She tried to mitigate her smile at her success: The engine now identified itself as the ship they were actually looking for. The cables read the same too, not that it was truly important now. "I declare this adequate for our purposes."

Sareena looked at the merchant. "Nine thousand now, the other nine when it's delivered to our ship."

"Fifteen," he countered.

She frowned. " _Twelve_."

"Agreed."

* * *

"So," Beril commented as the four of them walked towards the landing pad and their ship, "our boy was on a star yacht with an illegally modified transponder."

"No wonder the Pantorans couldn't find him," Sareena said. "Wonder what he was up to, if he didn't want them to know where he went."

"He's a government guy, right?" Rian asked rhetorically. "Sounds like black ops, didn't want the Assembly connected to whatever he was doing." Beril smiled, always pleased when Rian acted outside his trifecta of sneering, shouting and smashing.

"Whether they knew or not," Laani added. "Well, we'll ask them."

"Are you _serious_?" she said incredulously. "You think they're just gonna _tell_ us if we ask _nicely_?"

"We'd check official spaceport records for the alternate identification signature ourselves _too_ , of course. But if the Pantorans are serious about _us_ finding this guy, they'll either want to know about this or need to tell us."

Beril still wasn't sure what to think of this woman she hadn't even _heard_ of until a few days ago, but clearly she had one heck of a tenacious streak. And the only mechanics she knew who could play a black market dealer like she just did, also happened to be smugglers with ships of their _own_ to maintain. There had to be more to her history than simply serving the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars.

"If he's still _alive_ ," Rian countered. "Finding a piece of the ship in a scrap heap? Doesn't sound good for the life support."

"The engine's in really good shape," Laani responded. "Salvagers had to have come across the ship intact and adrift. Whether the passengers had been captured or spaced is still a question, but there had to be _some_ reason for it not to have been blown up in the first place."

"So where's that _active company_ you were talking about?"

"With any luck, they don't shoot paying customers. But we're not out of here _yet_."

Sareena exhaled sharply in annoyance. "How much would an engine like that _normally_ go for?"

Beril mentally compared the engine specs against known prices. "That size and that speed? A standard engine'd be around 25,000 credits new."

"So you're avoiding how much I overpaid second-hand."

"...yeah," she sighed. She worked with Sareena a few times over the past few years, but she always forgot how attentive she could be. And how _cheap_. She just assumed someone born into one of the most affluent noble houses in the galaxy would be much less of a spendthrift.

"Look," Laani said, "I'm sorry, but the whole thing would be a waste of time if we couldn't see if it was what we were looking for, and that was the only way I could get him to go along with it."

"He was perfectly fine letting you take that _first_ look for free," Rian insinuated.

Laani rolled her eyes. "Yes, because when we came in he thought I was indentured to some Imperial inspectors. Once I got him to relent on _that_ line of thought, that was as far as I could push."

"Oh is _that_ why you were all bossy."

"You think _that_ was bossy? Never been subordinate to someone who tried to dictate your _every_ move because they knew everything _better_ than you?"

"...point," Rian admitted.

"Besides," Laani continued, "there could be other clues there. Signs of what disabled the engine, or what environment it's been in. Things we don't have the equipment to determine here. If nothing else, it could be fitted into another ship, or maybe there's a similar yacht somewhere out..." Her voice trailed off as she looked over her shoulder, behind the group. "Have you seen any Gamorreans here?"

"There was one at that first cantina, I think," Beril answered.

"Is he the one trailing us _now_?"

She turned her head as if talking to Rian, who was walking besides her to her left, and checked her peripheral vision. Being only 1.5 meters tall had its disadvantages, among them that looking up at Rian's 1. _9_ meters constituted a pain in the neck; but even though each and every pedestrian on the street blocked her view behind them, the porcine features she was looking for were unmistakable, even in glimpses.

And having had both a homeworld and prior employment where Gamorreans were a common sight, she could distinguish such identifying characteristics as tusk angles and snout size. "It's him," she said with some resignation as she looked forward.

"How long's he been following us?" Sareena asked softly as she flexed her fingers.

"First saw him after we left the warehouse," Laani said in a similarly quiet tone. "He was keeping his distance until _now_."

A mix of snorting and squealing came from behind them, the volume indicating he was closing rapidly. "'Only one shot at this?'" she quoted in translation. "At _what_?"

"Doesn't matter," Laani said quickly, "we need to get out of the open. We're on the edge of the street; Side road."

As Sareena and Rian complied, turning past the corner of a large building, a squealing shout was punctuated by the sound of multiple blasters being armed. Evidently he brought friends.


	2. Chapter 2

Beril turned around just in time to see the Gamorrean charging straight at her. She started to run behind the building, despite thinking she couldn't get out of his reach; but he simply shoved her into the alleyway as he went by. Struggling to stay on her feet, she wasn't able to react when he plowed into Laani, who she had to guess was his intended target all along, nor when the three Rodians behind him brandished their blasters in her direction.

Their attention, as well as hers, was quickly drawn back to their boss. She wasn't sure _how_ , but Laani had turned him around and he crashed into two of the Rodians he'd come with, knocking them to the ground before tripping himself. The last man standing barely dodged the blue stun bolt from Sareena's blaster, but he couldn't respond in kind before Laani caught up with him, pulling the pistol out of his grasp and tossing it aside with a single swift motion of her hand.

He brought his fist back for a punch, but she couldn't see what happened next; she felt a hand plant itself between her shoulders and shove her towards the opposite side of the alley. She stayed on her feet and managed to stop just before she hit the wall of the building, behind a set of sealed crates.

" _ **Down,**_ " Rian commanded as he strode forward from where she had just been.

Snarling, she defiantly remained standing as she drew a blaster of her own. She found no good target, however: the Gamorrean was presumably outside her field of vision, the two Rodians hadn't picked themselves off the ground yet, and the third was exchanging blows with Laani...for some definition of the word "blows".

Beril was no expert on martial arts, but Laani seemed to be deflecting every swing of the man's fist with the platinum bracers on her forearms, then using the same forearm to hit him with her fist or elbow. As near as she could tell, he wasn't hurt much but he had yet to actually _hit_ her. She seriously doubted they taught _that_ in the Republic Navy.

Rian continued to walk out of the alleyway, while Sareena quickly moved into position behind the corner. They seemed to have the same idea, keeping the downed opposition _down_ , but Rian acted first: He simply walked between them as they got to their knees, then swung his elbows into their faces as he made a show of cracking his knuckles, sending them sprawling to the street once more.

Laani's assailant, tired of getting beat on with nothing to show for it, abandoned restraint and lunged towards her. But even with as little distance as there was between them, she sidestepped out of his path and behind him. His anger was palpable, but it didn't matter; she was far enough away that friendly fire wasn't a consideration.

Beril fired her blaster at him; but without having time to aim, her quick shot went wide. He wasn't so lucky with Sareena's second attempt, and he fell to ground shortly after the blue bolt hit him directly in the chest.

The sound of bodies colliding drew everyone's attention, as Rian stumbled backwards into view with one hand over his face. He was still moving backwards when the Gamorrean appeared, squealing angrily as he charged with his head forward.

With an abrupt shift in posture, Rian's erratic footwork became resolute footing and he swung an uppercut, hitting his opponent square in the snout. The force of the impact was enough to halt his charge, but he had enough weight to remain standing. Beril'd seen Rian do this not-really-dizzy routine several times, however, so she wasn't surprised when he followed with a haymaker to correct the situation.

He grinned as he looked at the four unconscious bodies. Then he snapped his head towards Beril, and his face instantly took on an irritated expression.

"Nice shot," he said sarcastically. "I **told** you to stay **down!** "

"Yeah," she spat back, "and **I** didn't _**listen**_!"

"Guys," Sareena cut in, "if I could have a moment of your time, please?"

Rian wordlessly turned away and walked to where Sareena and Laani were trying to figure out what provoked the unprovoked attack. Beril sighed in annoyance and rolled her eyes before joining them.

Laani snarled in disgust, as she looked at the datapad one of the Rodians had dropped. " _Damn_ it," she said, "I'm going to be harassed by every bounty hunter who can't tell Togruta apart, aren't I?"

Beril absentmindedly reached for the datapad before stopping herself. Laani didn't look in her direction, but she _did_ hand the datapad over.

The absurdly large number on the bounty posting practically spoke for itself. "'Two million credits alive'? Yes, we _are_ going to be harassed repeatedly."

"At least we know why we were attacked," Sareena said weakly.

Beril, meanwhile, was darting her eyes back and forth between the image on the bounty and Laani. The sienna jumpsuit looked the same, other than Laani's bracers...same orange skin tone...the pattern of the facial markings looked dissimilar, although the bounty picture looked slightly out of focus for some—

She shifted her head to look askance at the image. She'd almost missed it, but there were telltale signs of pixelation...and the artifacts weren't in line with the image itself. "Geez," she said, "They couldn't find a quality image anywhere?"

"It's a fake?" Sareena asked. Laani exhaled slowly.

Beril shot a curious look at Laani before answering. "Don't think so; they'd have tried to mask the image artifacts if they doctored it. If I had to guess, I'd say a zoomed-and-rotated image off of out-of-range surveillance footage was the best they could do." Realizing she hadn't actually _read_ the rest of the posting, she quickly glanced at it. "Only fifty thousand dead? Yeah, this is no Hutt after..." She looked at it again, but the name appeared too unusual for her to parse correctly. "How do you pronounce that?"

"Ahsoka Tano," Laani answered fluently.

"Thanks." Her guess on the surname was wrong. "Someone in the Empire is after this Ahsoka, whoever she is. Moff with a severe grudge, I'd guess."

"Why do you say that?" Sareena asked.

"Which? The Empire, because no crime lord is so secure that they bet 1,950,000 credits on keeping a target _alive_. A Moff, because no one lower has that kind of monetary clout. A grudge, because the Empire normally frowns on bounty hunters; the only reason an Imperial would post a bounty is to get it done outside the Imperial system, away from Imperial eyes."

"You seem to know a lot about bounties," Laani commented.

"I guess," she answered dismissively, "like I imagine you know a lot about Jedi from your time in the Republic Navy." She didn't feel like getting into the story of finding _herself_ the target of a bounty several years back.

Laani paused briefly. "I wouldn't say a _lot_ , but your point is taken."

Some swift motion registered out of the corner of each of Beril's eyes. Her peripheral vision was good enough that she recognized the beige uniforms of local security—which, this being a shadowport instead of a legal spaceport, amounted to a squad of ordained thugs.

"Step back!" a helmet-filtered male voice commanded, as several blaster rifles were leveled in their direction. No one defied the order, as right now their best defense was that they hadn't actually done anything wrong.

While a few troopers checked each of the bodies on the ground for vital signs, Beril noted to herself that her implied connection to bounty hunters was taken quite calmly by Laani. In fact...other than finding herself targeted over a two million credit bounty, she hadn't even sounded stressed. She hadn't actively noticed before, but even Sareena was breathing a little more heavily, working off the adrenaline, and all she'd done was fire a couple shots from a blaster.

But somehow Laani, who'd redirected someone literally twice her weight, was taking it like a walk in a park? That was _far_ too suspicious, no matter how she'd survived after the end of the Republic Navy...assuming she was ever there, something Beril realized she shouldn't take at face value. Certainly _some_ 'restricted' database in the Empire had to have archive records on Laani Sy, she just had to find it. Even if that wasn't her name, it's not like there would be a ton of non-clone crew during the _Clone_ Wars to dig through.

"Move along," the same voice ordered.

"What?" came a separate, but similar voice next to him.

"Are you _questioning_ me?" he countered angrily, turning his head slightly to the side.

"Sorry sir, but you know Boss'll ask."

"Fine. What we have _here_ , is local _scum_ attacking _paying_ visitors over an _Imperial_ bounty. Even if she were the actual target, the Empire wanting her is reason for us to _deny_ it. And no one died, so this is all a waste of our time. Like your _questions_ are a waste of _mine_!"

"Sorry sir!"

The apparent squad leader snapped his head towards Laani. "I _said_ , **move along**!"

"Alright already," Sareena answered for her as the four of them started down the street, which was slowly repopulating now that the fighting was definitively over.

"So...now what?" Beril asked.

"We get our engine and we go home," Sareena answered.

"I _was_ thinking we could get something to eat at one of the diners," Laani said, "but _now_ I just want to get out of here as soon as we can."

"Yeah," Rian agreed, "this place is boring."

"What?" Beril said mockingly. "You're not going to run around with your holocam, capture all the vistas?"

He scoffed. "The dull grey surface of this shallow crater, the dull grey mountains in the distance, or the _dark_ grey street we're walking on? This port's clean for a heap, but it's still a _heap_."

* * *

Sareena took a deep breath before the cockpit door of the freighter opened.

The blue light of hyperspace travel bathed the various consoles, highlighting the seemingly-empty pilot chair.

Of course, she knew it wasn't actually empty. "Beril."

"Sareena," she responded, as she poked her head past the side of the chair. "Don't suppose you're here to free me from the tedium."

She sighed. "You _know_ you're easily the best pilot here."

"Well, _obviously_ , but that's the _opposite_ of making it entertaining."

"Look," Sareena stated with irritation, "If I could make a tunnel of air from here all the way to Alderaan—"

"But you _can't_ , so there _isn't_ , so I'm _bored_. The _autopilot_ can handle trivial _space_ navigation."

" _Normally_ , I'd agree with letting the autopilot handle it. But in case you _forgot_ , we were seen in port where at _least_ four people think we're carrying millions of credits worth of personnel, I don't want to give any 'surprises' a time advantage."

"Easy for _you_ to say. You're not the one stuck up here, staring at space with no one to talk to and nothing to do."

"So...you want me to stay up here."

"...Yeah, actually. And since you brought her up, let's talk about the _new_ girl."

 _Ahsoka's name is Laani_ , Sareena mentally reminded herself as she moved to the side by Beril's seat. "She was staring out one of the windows, last I saw her."

"That's not what I mean. The way she talked past those guys, and _fought_ past the other guys. You really think she learned that in the Navy?"

"No," she answered honestly, "but the Republic Navy as we knew it only existed for three years, it _can't_ have been the majority of her life."

"You think she just picked that _up_?" Beril asked incredulously.

"Where did _you_ pick up slicing into Imperial archives remotely?" she countered.

"Taught myself with Republic archives when I was a kid, but that's completely—"

"So why couldn't someone have taught Laani when _she_ was a kid?"

"Who teaches a little kid stuff like _that_?!"

"I can't say, the Empire hasn't been kind on Shili's _recordkeeping_." She kind of suspected the Jedi Order taught it to Ahsoka, but she wanted a location less prone to eavesdropping before asking her directly.

Beril paused. "She's actually from the Togruta homeworld?"

Sareena took a deep breath. "Yeah, at least originally. She moved to Coruscant at some point prior to the Navy. And after the Navy...well, I think she was intentionally avoiding making it into records, a situation I know _you_ can appreciate. Incidentally, I hear the bounty on you has stayed withdrawn these past few years."

She scoffed. "Of _course_ it has, my ex-boss wouldn't want the other Hutts to know I was still valuable. No, when Xanna finds me it'll be through her _own_ agents. But speaking of bounties...What do _you_ think: Could that Ahsoka actually be Laani?"

Sareena clenched her teeth to hide her initial reaction of discovery, before realizing that Ahsoka being Laani would be the _converse_ of the actual situation of Laani being Ahsoka; Beril wouldn't have phrased it the way she did if she'd already figured it out. "I'd like to think our people would've noticed if there was such an unusual bounty on anyone traveling with us." She intended to have a little chat with someone about that very subject when they got to Alderaan, in fact. "Are you saying she matches the image on the posting?"

"I'm not exactly an expert on Togruta physiology, but I'd say she's at least a false positive given the quality of that image. My guess, this Ahsoka had disabled all the security at whatever compound she was in, and some out-of-range accidental footage from some security camera was the only thing they could pull a picture from."

"Not too surprising," Sareena muttered.

Beril turned her head sharply towards Sareena. "Oh? You know something I don't?"

Sareena exhaled slowly and looked at the ceiling, trying to pull up memories that would make it seem like she _hadn't_ seen Ahsoka during the past week and a half. "Possibly, though I don't remember it well. Ahsoka Tano was a Jedi, on trial for murdering a witness to the bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, near the end of the Clone Wars. I was actually on Coruscant for my medical training at the time, so it was kind of a hot topic. She was acquitted after another Jedi came forward and confessed to framing her."

"A Jedi? Wow...Well that would explain two million credits at least. But doesn't the Empire have its _own_ agents specially trained to track down Jedi? Why would there be a bounty? Especially one with one-fortieth the sum dead and without even hinting that she's a Jedi; everyone's going to find out the _hard_ way."

Sareena shook her head. "That's what worries me. Someone's invested two million credits to get bounty hunters in over their heads, and Laani's gotten mixed up in it all." Another thing she intended to go over when they got to Alderaan. Ahsoka'd gone saber-to-saber with the strongest arm in the Empire and survived, what chance did unprepared bounty hunters have? There _had_ to be some ulterior motive to the bounty, because it made no damn _sense_ otherwise.

"So what does _she_ have to say about the whole thing?"

"She told me, 'We got what we came for, and no one died. I'd call that a victory.' Sounds reasonable to me, too."

"That's fair, yeah. So we're going to drop the engine off on Alderaan?"

"With the assignment we're on, I imagine we'll be contacted once we enter the system, and get directions to dock with whatever station or ship is available to analyze our cargo. _Then_ we'll land on Alderaan itself."

"Need to report to the _Senator_ in person, Miss _Organa_?"

Sareena rolled her eyes. Yes, she was a blood relative of Senator Bail Organa, which _technically_ made her a member of the Royal Family of Alderaan. But even if she were inclined to _care_ , he was her _third_ uncle; her own father just shared a great-grandparent with Bail. The connection was too distant in her eyes for nepotism to even be a possibility; little Leia was going to be the next Queen of Alderaan, no one was going to look at her third cousin for anything.

Beril enjoyed bringing it up though, like there should be something magical in the name itself. Which hadn't ceased to feel like an affront to her as a person over the last couple years. "No, _Miss Iset_ , but I expect he'll want us to handle whatever the next step ends up being, so we may as well _land_ somewhere in the meantime. It'll be nice to look at something besides ramshackle buildings and spaceship interiors."

"If you say so, leader ma'am," Beril responded playfully.

Sareena exhaled slowly. Was she trying to be accommodating or infuriating? Either way, pressing the subject felt unwise.

Beril seemed to agree. "So what 'next step' are you expecting, anyway?"

Sareena looked up at the ceiling as she quickly evaluated the scenario. They had transponder signatures the Pantorans wanted, which they wouldn't want _broadcast_ , in something they could acquire _physically_..."They'll want to get the engine for themselves, and I doubt they'll risk drawing attention by sending a ship to Alderaan. Probably plan on making a dead drop to transfer the engine without either of us seeing each other."

"At a location of their choosing, closer to Pantoran space than ours, I'm sure. Could easily be a trap."

"Could, assuming my guess is right, but it seems unlikely. We'd just be making a drop off, the only thing they'd want from us is what we'd be giving them _anyway_."

Beril paused. " _Again_ , you know something I don't?"

Apparently, Beril hadn't been given details of where this operation fit into Bail's strategy...which meant Rian hadn't either, or she'd have gotten them from him. Since she wasn't at liberty to _fully_ disclose those details..."As I understand it, this is basically a favor trade. The Pantoran Assembly will do something for Senator Organa once they've recovered, or at least located, their missing man. _That_ will be our 'payment', not a transfer of assets."

"Huh. I thought Pantora and Alderaan were, like, Senate buddies."

"Wasn't enough, I guess. Hmm." Some thoughts had started ironing themselves out in her head. "Hey, tell you what: You go get some rest or take a break or something, I'll handle the pilot seat from here."

"Really? I'm still the better pilot, you know," Beril commented in jest.

"Not when you're bored out of your mind, you're not."

"Eh. You've got a point. It's all yours," she said as she quickly got out of the seat and jogged towards the cockpit door.

"Hey," Sareena called out before she left, "Don't go rewriting the autopilot again."

"You just said I shouldn't be bored!"

"Remember how far off course we ended up last time?"

"It was only a couple hours, and only because the navicomputer rebooted before I could debug the software! Laani can keep it—"

"Beril," Sareena said sternly.

" _Fine_! Spoilsport," she muttered as she walked out.

Sareena rolled her eyes, again, as she settled into the seat. Beril was talented, no doubt about it, but she let her judgement lapse in the face of her own entertainment. If she didn't let herself be talked out of her ill-advised boredom breakers, she'd be impossible to work with. In fact, Sareena guessed that was why Beril didn't just bury herself in a more secure, and more tedious, working arrangement.

She couldn't be talked out of her _curiosity_ , though, which is why Sareena hadn't directly tried. All that'd have accomplished was make Beril even more curious about "Laani" and what someone was trying to hide. If she still intended to go poking around wherever she did her poking and research the name "Laani Sy", well...Ahsoka wasn't the first Jedi who benefited from a false identity and all the documentation that entailed, and the people responsible for setting that up were not the same as those responsible for keeping her informed of developments like multi-million credit bounties. With any luck, Beril would get bored before she found anything out of order.

What she said about "Senate buddies" concerned her, though. Sareena was there for that meeting, and Senator Chuchi was certainly enthusiastic that Bail had brought Ahsoka along. Sareena didn't really understand how a Senator and a Jedi found time during the Clone Wars to form a friendship in the first place, but it was obvious that the Imperial era was not a time for taking such things for granted; and she felt that the Senator and Ahsoka were more pleased just to see each other in good health, than that Bail had brought them together to further their goals. Nevertheless, the gesture moved Senator Chuchi to intercede with Pantora's planetary government, and they responded almost immediately, leading to the search-and-investigate mission of the past several days.

But the immediacy of the response seemed odd. Especially since during the course of their investigation, it turned up that the ship carrying their quarry had left Pantora a week prior. It was urgent enough that he was foremost on their minds, but yet not urgent enough to send investigators of their own after him. At the time she'd assumed they didn't want anyone on Pantora to know he'd gone missing, but it was looking more and more like they didn't want anyone to know what he was actually _doing_.

Which would put the four of them in a rather precarious position, depending on how things concluded.

Or more accurately, put Beril, Rian and herself in a precarious position. She didn't want to believe Senator Chuchi would put Ahsoka in harm's way, but she quickly realized that putting _Ahsoka_ at risk would be quite a feat; she'd witnessed first-hand how severely Ahsoka outclassed the Empire's Jedi-hunting "experts". And Ahsoka certainly wasn't worried either; she said she accepted "Laani" not for _her_ protection, but for _their_ protection, because the Empire wouldn't think twice about obliterating them if they saw the slightest chance of catching her in the carnage.

So was the Senator from Pantora naive enough not to know the risks they were walking into? Was she connected enough to know for certain there _was_ no actual risk? Or was she shrewd enough not to let them take that risk until someone who could trivially negate it was available? Sareena had no way of knowing.

She supposed her only option was to raise her concerns when they got to Alderaan; someone there could figure it out, assuming the answers weren't already waiting for their arrival. All that was left was to get there.

Looking at the blue tunnel of hyperspace travel outside the cockpit, she accepted Beril's assessment of the monotony. But boredom was safe. She could handle safety in extended doses. Because until the Empire fell, she could never rely on it being there when she needed it.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'll be honest," Ahsoka said as she took her seat, "I kind of assumed Sareena would be running the debriefing thing."

"She'll arrive when she can," Bail Organa answered from another chair at the conference table. "She wanted to find out for herself how a two million credit bounty could be posted without her being informed."

"Her and me both," she muttered, idly tapping her fingers on the fine wooden table. "I don't like surprises these days."

Even the basic conference rooms at the Aldera Royal Palace were grandiose. Living on the run more-or-less continuously for the last ten years, and under Jedi austerity in every memory before that, she felt uncomfortable; as if the bronze walls themselves were going to demand she explain why someone like her deserved their company. On a more practical level, she knew the place was ridiculously expansive, in a way the massive Jedi Temple on Coruscant could only pretend to emulate. And as with there, any surprises strong enough to come _here_ would wipe out the entire place before anyone knew the full extent of the threat. It was kind of how she felt about _herself_ , if she was being honest.

"I suppose not," the senator commented before Ahsoka could get too far into introspection. He seemed to have a talent for timing his delays to her state of mind. Maybe it was a diplomat thing? "So how did the mission go, roughly?"

"We tracked the path of the star yacht, the _Silver Sparrow_ , from spaceport to spaceport; Sareena asked nicely where the spaceport staff was amenable, Beril sliced quietly elsewhere. We found a leg the yacht never reached its destination in, and investigating nearby systems revealed there was a pleasure craft found abandoned and adrift by Imperial authorities. They left the ship unattended, and salvagers did the rest; we tracked the salvagers' part-trading and eventually acquired the engine, which of course is where ship identification transponders are to verify we tracked the _correct_ ship. Incidentally...could I get eighteen thousand credits?"

He tilted his head. "I thought you didn't want credits?"

She sighed. "Well, I kinda put Sareena on the spot getting the engine, and—"

"Say no more," he stated firmly. "I'll just get it to her directly, if that's OK with you."

"Fine by me," Ahsoka agreed. Then curiosity started poking her in the head. "Sareena seemed unhappy. Was that a problem?"

"Don't worry. Sareena just prefers having things ready in advance. So what's your assessment of what happened to the _Silver Sparrow_?"

Ahsoka paused briefly at the change of subject. "I have a hard time believing the Empire would take prisoners and then leave the ship for anyone to find. It was probably abandoned when they found it. It's _also_ hard to believe they'd choose to leave a ship behind after they found it, so I have to guess something drew them away. Which would make it _incredibly_ convenient timing that the ship was salvaged before the Empire got back to it."

"So you're thinking it was a cooperative effort between the raiders and the salvagers?"

"Yeah, assuming they weren't one and the same. No idea what the _Sparrow_ was doing out there, but the engine had false identification in place when we found it. They could still be trying to identify the presumably-rich passengers to know where to send ransom demands."

A chime echoed in the room, a mere second before one of the doors slid open. Sareena strode to an empty chair at the table, scowling.

"That bad, huh?" Ahsoka said nonchalantly.

Sareena exhaled slowly as she sat down. "Said the bounty wasn't on Laani Sy, so they didn't think we needed to be informed. Told them we were attacked by people who thought the possible payday was worth the risk of misidentification, and to inform us of any activity specifically targeting Togruta. Before I have to start holding them responsible for such unpleasant surprises."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. She was _beyond_ sick of being viewed as interchangeable with _every other_ member of her people. Whatever reasons anyone imagined they had to justify it, she hoped for a day when she could expect to be judged for who she was, not _what_ she was. Even here, among allies, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that her erstwhile Jedi status was the main source of their acceptance.

"So what'd I miss?" Sareena continued.

"Ahsoka was just telling me her theory about the passengers," Senator Organa answered.

"The Raider-Empire-Salvager scenario?"

"Yep," Ahsoka confirmed.

"It's quite a plausible sequence of events, but I don't like what it does for the odds of the crew still being alive. Dumping the hostages would be less risky than _ransoming_ them."

"True, but I'd like to think we'd have heard if there were bodies found on or around the ship. Taking the passengers away only to dump them later makes no sense. They'd have to have at least _planned_ on checking if they were worth ransoming, or they wouldn't have bothering capturing them at _all_."

"That we hadn't heard about _your_ bounty doesn't fill me with confidence, but your point is taken. Speaking of bounties...What was with throwing the Gamorrean around?"

Ahsoka looked askance at her. "I wasn't going to stand there and get flattened, if that's what you mean."

"I saw how you dodged the other guy. You could've just gotten out of his way, without the risk of blowing your cover!"

Ahsoka caught the nearly-accusatory tone that time. "I didn't want to see if his friends were going to shoot you guys, so I _distracted_ them. With _him_. Most of that 'throw' was his own momentum anyway!"

Sareena took a deep, deliberate breath. "I'm just worried about what will happen to the _rest_ of us if the Empire _finds_ you."

"So am I. But letting you die just so the _Empire_ can't kill you makes no sense. And like I was getting to, the guy was charging in such a hurry he couldn't decelerate himself; it was a pivot, not a throw. Don't need to be a Jedi to pull _that_ off."

"That may be, but you certainly aroused _Beril's_ suspicion."

Ahsoka decided to deflect the subject, since she already knew she made the best decision. "So why aren't she and Rian in on this with us, anyway?"

Senator Organa leaned forward. "It's need-to-know," he said. "If the Empire finds out, it's all over for us; it's too great a risk to spread."

"Besides," Sareena added, "Rian will best do his part unknowingly."

Ahsoka narrowed an eyebrow. "And what part is _that_?"

"He enjoys showing off, I'm sure you've noticed. All the better to draw attention away from _you_...if he doesn't know his displays of force are competing with displays of _Force_."

Ahsoka shrugged. "So noted, I guess."

Sareena sighed. "So anyway, assuming the Assembly still wants us to find the guy...Our technicians didn't find anything on the engine other than what Ahsoka already told us, so our next step should be heading back to where the _Sparrow_ was found adrift, see if we can backtrack who _set_ it adrift."

"Don't know how else we'd find the passengers," Ahsoka agreed. "We may as well plan on heading out there, we can call it off if the Pantorans want to finish this on their own."

"In that case," Senator Organa said, "plan to head there in a day or so. Hopefully our contacts will find out about any unpleasant surprises in _advance_ this time."

"I'd appreciate that," Ahsoka said.

"As would we all," Sareena commented. "And while we're talking about unpleasantries, the scenario is concerning me. The Pantorans didn't tell us how long ago the _Sparrow_ left their space, and I'm forced to _assume_ that's the ship's actual name. If they wanted the ship's itinerary hidden, would they want us alive to spread it around?"

Ahsoka frowned, feeling an insult by proxy. "You think Chuchi set us _up_?!"

Sareena rolled her eyes in response. "No, but there are a lot of planetary officials on Pantora to _assume_ she would balk if she _knew_ we were being set up."

Ahsoka blinked. "I suppose. Why would they want to sabotage _us_ , though?" At least she resisted the urge for making a _strong_ outburst.

"Compared to other near-human worlds," Senator Organa stated, "Pantora's retained a great deal of independence. Excessive caution could make them...unwilling to accommodate the facility we want to establish in their system."

Ahsoka groaned. "Stupid speciesism again. It doesn't even make sense, Palpatine had all _sorts_ of hand-picked advisors when he was Chancellor."

She quickly covered her mouth, as a sickeningly oily memory squeezed her stomach. After the sensation had passed, she coughed and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "Sorry. _Vader_ told me it was because the Emperor was too weak to rule without enslaving the galaxy, but I don't see a connection." Shortly before Vader had tried to execute _her_ , a weeks-old memory that was still quite rancid in her mind.

Senator Organa sighed. "Whether he genuinely believes in it or not, it's certainly allowed the Empire to do as he commands from day to day, by keeping the galaxy too busy feuding amongst itself to notice."

Ahsoka sighed in annoyance. "Pit the galaxy against itself, and he comes out on top. It's the Clone Wars all over again."

"Somewhat. But he isn't cloaked in secrecy this time. He doesn't care who knows he's an enemy, and that complacency will give us an opportunity to strike when the time is right."

"While we're talking about opportunities to strike," Sareena cut in, "I imagine the Pantoran Assembly will want us to deliver the recovered engine, for their techs to examine themselves?"

"Yes...but in light of your concerns, I'll see if I can make alternative arrangements. In the meantime, if there's anything either of you want to do here on Alderaan, this is a prime opportunity."

"Does wandering aimlessly around the palace count?" Ahsoka asked sarcastically.

"I believe that's a palace tradition, so yes," Senator Organa answered with a smile.

* * *

" _Again_?" Beril growled in annoyance. "Geez Rian, didn't you take enough pictures of mountains when you were still living on Corellia?"

"No," he answered flatly, as he carefully adjusted the zoom to frame the distant city between two peaks. "Didn't have the time, it was still a new hobby when I had to leave."

"When _we_ had to leave, you mean."

There she went again, trying to make everything about _her_. " _You_ didn't _need_ to leave."

"I certainly _did_ when I picked you up in the airspeeder. You know, you never told me: How were you _planning_ to get offworld if I hadn't found you?"

"I'd have figured something out," he said as he finished his recording. "Probably involving explosives, threats and pilots."

"Wanted a side of hijacking charges to go with the police murder, huh?"

He shrugged. "I worked for planetary law enforcement too. They had my record, they wouldn't have shot at me if they wanted to live." It was insulting, really; they only sent _seven_ guys against an elite shock trooper? "They couldn't kill me any _harder_ after that, we wouldn't arrest someone who terminated several of our own."

"I suppose not. So...why'd you come with me, a perfect stranger at the time, anyway?"

He glanced at her. Still as scrawny as she'd looked then, the few intervening years hadn't changed her much. "You had a speeder right there and frankly, I could knock you out easily if you tried anything."

She hissed indignantly.

"So why'd _you_ decide to help out such a violent man?" he quickly interrupted, before she could waste more of his time with complaints.

The abruptness of the question only distracted her for a split second. "I kinda saw the shooting from a distance, kinda intercepted the report saying you slaughtered them before they could even draw their weapons...which would be a really neat trick since they started shooting you _first_...Smelled like a ripe scam for thwarting. Plus, at the time I didn't know how big an _ass_ you are."

"Everyone I _didn't_ have to kill to escape should appreciate your lack of foresight," he countered sarcastically.

"So what do you think about the new girl?" Beril abruptly asked.

Having expected some kind of feeble comeback, Rian was momentarily thrown off by the lack of transition. Although he guessed this would explain why she agreed to land on the side of this mountain without _much_ protest, she didn't want any chance of eavesdroppers. "Taller than you," he said nonchalantly.

She scoffed. " _Seriously_ , Rian—"

"If you're **serious** ," he cut her off with annoyance, "then quit trying to _lead_ me around and _tell_ me what your **problem** is!"

"Do you think she's _really_ who she claims to be?" she said angrily.

No pause. She _was_ serious. "Laani hasn't said much about who she _is_ ," he answered with irritation, "and I don't see why she couldn't have _been_ who she claims to have been."

Beril scowled. "You punched the guy she tossed around, you can _not_ tell me that's a normal thing for someone her size to be doing!"

"It looked more like a pivot to me."

" _Not the point!_ "

"Then what _is_ the point?"

"You just don't _get_ it, do you?"

"That we're working with someone more capable of defending herself than _you_ are, and you're protesting _only_ because you don't know _why_?"

"... _Yes_!" she yelled with exasperation. "Is that so _wrong_?"

Rian shook his head. He'd never have gotten anything done if _he_ insisted on knowing everything in advance; it had to be relaxing to make a living away from the front lines. "Being too worked up over it is wrong, yes."

She stared him in the eyes, which looked like it was straining her neck. " _You_ , of _all_ people, are telling me not to be _suspicious_?"

He snorted. "No. But if you're wrong, you're just going to wear yourself out over what _should_ be good for us."

"But—"

"And if she _is_...I don't know, an Imperial double agent or whatever you're thinking, tipping her off that you need to be silenced is the _last_ thing you should do. Is there any reason to think she's a threat to us?"

"...No," she admitted.

"Should find a _reason_ to be worried, if you want to be worried. Digging up secrets is what you _do_ , isn't it?"

"You _know_ I do a whole lot _more_ than—"

"Yeah, yeah," he cut her off dismissively. "Put that energy of yours to work, isn't that something _else_ you do?"

" _You_..." Beril interrupted _herself_ this time, with a deep breath. "You're right," she said confidently, in that self-assured voice she could put on without notice. It wasn't going to fool him, and she should know that, but maybe she was too busy fooling herself. "Flitting around like a mynock isn't going to do any good. I need to figure out who I'm dealing with here, before anything else. I should've realized this sooner."

"You certainly should have realized that sooner," he agreed.

She exhaled sharply in frustration. "Why do you have to _be_ like that?" she demanded, dropping her vocal facade.

"Getting stuck in your own epiphany has never been much of an improvement," he answered, ignoring her tone.

She growled as she shook her head. "Can we just go back?" she said impatiently, turning back towards the pilot seat of the speeder before she even finished the sentence.

"Fine by me," he declared as he approached the opposite side of the vehicle. "Let me know when you find out."

"Well _duh_."

* * *

"Sending the same people to the same asteroid on the same ship," Rian commented the next morning. "Giving up on sneaking, are we?"

"Sort of," Sareena answered. "Someone needs to go back and ask about the same subject, which will look connected to us whether it's a different team or a different ship. Why go to the trouble of getting someone else up to speed or looking like we've got something hide?"

"The direct approach really saves time," he agreed, cracking his knuckles for emphasis.

"Doesn't popping your joints like that hurt?" Ahsoka asked, as she briefly glanced at his short brown hair. As frequently as he did it, she imagined some sort of deterioration would be a possibility.

"No."

" _Anyway,_ " Sareena cut in, "We'll be looking in the _opposite_ direction from last time. That asteroid's where we picked up the trail that led to the engine, so we'll backtrack to where the ship was taken apart in the first place. There should at least be a _connection_ to where any passengers, like our target, were taken."

"You really think he's still alive at this point?" Beril asked.

"I don't know how else we'd find out," Ahsoka said.

Beril slowly turned to look at her. "I suppose it's a good place to start looking," she eventually said. Seemed like an odd way to express agreement.

"It's a long shot," Sareena admitted, "but the Pantorans would be much more grateful to get him back alive."

"Another favor?" Rian said with some disdain.

"More likely _several_ ," Sareena answered flatly. "In any case, the ship'll be ready for launch in...twenty-seven minutes; so unless you want to hang around here in the cargo bay, go get whatever you need and meet back in half an hour, so we can head off immediately."

"Wait," Beril said, "didn't they want the engine for themselves?"

"Senator Organa's made arrangements. The Pantoran senator will be here in the next few days, and she'll take it back with her."

"Really? Senate buddies indeed..." she said softly, sounding distant.

"Is that a problem?" Ahsoka asked, a little too quickly.

Beril's reverie ended. "No, quite the opposite in fact. An owed favor's only as good as the leverage it can exert, and modifying the itinerary of a Senator takes at least _middling_ influence."

Ahsoka suppressed her sigh. In the days of the _Republic_ it'd have been more of a feat; the _Imperial_ senate was little more than an advisory council, for the Emperor to disregard as he saw fit. Granted, he had a lot of leeway during the Clone Wars as well, but internal strife in the Senate was on occasion noteworthy even to the Jedi; the Senate _had_ to have been important. It was just a collection of people with empty titles now.

Of course, Chuchi wasn't a typical Senator; she'd calmly walked straight aboard that Trade Federation battleship all those years ago, unafraid. Padme was the same way, really...And Ahsoka supposed Senator Organa was at least in the same category. It felt strange, that she met so few average people while she was with the Jedi Order...But then, that could explain why so many of the Jedi Council understood normalcy only in the abstract; why they placed their interpretations above their perceptions as blatantly obvious as...

As her dedication to the Jedi Order. Which didn't lapse until the Council broke it themselves. Maybe they were victims of their own self-fulfilling prophecies.

"You alright, _Laani_?" Sareena asked with mild disinterest.

Ahsoka quickly snapped back to attention, having determined that _Bail_ Organa's sense of timing was unlikely to be a family trait. "Sorry," she said as she quickly shook her head, "I was just remembering how the Senate was during the Clone Wars. It'd be a much more impressive sign _then_."

"True," Beril agreed, "the Senators would have a much easier time getting someone _else_ to do this kind of work."

"More impressive to use their _own_ resources than their _system's_ , I say," Rian commented.

"Huh," Ahsoka said. "Never thought about it that way..."

"Guys," Sareena said over the three of them, "we'll have plenty of time to discuss sociology _after_ we leave Alderaan, alright? We've got a job to do, and limited time to gear up for it. I doubt raiders turned kidnappers are courteous, so expect combat."

"Good," Rian said. "Feels like time to bring out the good armor, anyway."

"And the weapons that go with it."

"Even better," he agreed.

"While I hope we won't _need_ that kind of firepower..."

"Yeah _that's_ a safe bet," Rian countered sarcastically.

"No kidding..." Sareena darted her eyes between Ahsoka and Beril. "What about _you_ two? Various hardware to break into secure systems or vehicles or droids?"

"We didn't use any of it last time," Ahsoka said.

"So unless we're bringing an _air_ speeder to an _asteroid_ ," Beril declared with annoyance, "we're already ready already."

"...what she said," Ahsoka agreed after double-checking her parsing of the sentence.

"Alright. If you need to change your mind, you've got twenty-five minutes to do it. See you all then."

Rian turned and headed down the cargo ramp, and Beril quickly followed.

"And what about _you_?" Ahsoka asked.

Sareena rolled her eyes. "My rifle, wilderness survival pack and field surgery kit were aboard before I called any of you here." She paused to look around the empty cargo bay with a suspicious expression. "I assume _you're_ still all you need?"

"And I brought a couple _blasters,_ too," Ahsoka answered with slight disgust. She wasn't exactly _good_ with pistols, but appearances had to be kept, and she _could_ use two with the same mediocrity as one. Blasters didn't handle like lightsabers, but her ambidexterity hadn't lapsed over the years.

"Two, huh...I keep forgetting to ask, didn't you used to fight with _two_ lightsabers?"

"I've found it easier to be versatile with a hand free." She'd also realized how overdependent she had become on having two lightsabers, when Barriss beat her with a Ventress _impersonation_ after she'd dropped one of them; but she figured the best way not to dwell on those long-ago events was not to give anyone else a reason to bring them up.

Ahsoka slowly noticed that the shouts of the hangar crew and the hiss of steam venting, which were certainly audible while she came up the ship's ramp, were now mottled behind the background noise of machinery; despite the wide door to the hangar still being _open_. "Did you really cover the _entire_ cargo bay with a sound damping field?"

"I'm sure at some point, the ship hauled vocal livestock that spaceports don't want to hear," Sareena confirmed obliquely. "It's a _subtle_ field, softening voices enough to thwart surveillance without _suspiciously_ cutting all sound," she added pointedly.

"Are you _still_ going on about that?" Ahsoka countered incredulously.

"Even during the _Clone Wars_ you had a reputation for impulsiveness, and it seems well-deserved. We're trying _not_ to draw attention to you, if you'll recall."

Ahsoka frowned. "Are you saying I can't _control myself?_ " she accused.

"Oh I know you _can_ ," Sareena answered flatly. "But I don't think it's _natural_ , you have to pause to think about it first. And when you _don't_ pause you _fight_ , and you're simply too _much_ of a fighter not to draw attention to yourself."

Ahsoka took a deep breath through clenched teeth. "You're underestimating me," she declared defiantly.

"Then do me a favor and make sure I'm _wrong_."

"With _pleasure_ ," Ahsoka agreed with a smirk.

Sareena rolled her eyes.

Ahsoka supposed Sareena had something vaguely resembling a point. She'd never been one for letting a problem go unresolved. In her experience "subtlety" usually meant "don't do anything about it", and all the _subtle_ Jedi might as well be dead for the good they were refusing to do. But at the same time, to imply she was _incapable_ of self-restraint when the situation required it? Who ever heard of a Jedi without self-discipline, anyway? "So do you have any _other_ prudent-yet-insulting questions for me?" she asked with irritation.

"No," she answered coldly. "I'm sure you'll find out if I come up with one."

"Of course I will," Ahsoka countered sarcastically. "Make sure it's _prudent_. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be _anywhere else_."

"Fair enough. Don't get lost, twenty-three minutes."

Rather than answer, Ahsoka quickly turned around and walked briskly across the cargo bay and out the door, hearing the sounds of hangar activity gain clarity as she went. The difficulty of resisting the urge to _stomp_ her way out was seriously undercutting her evaluation of her own self-discipline, but she emerged victorious in the struggle. It was still worrying her, though.

She knew Sareena was responsible for the well-being of the four of them, and the kind of attention looking for Ahsoka would be incredibly detrimental. Why did it feel so insulting, when she was fully aware it wasn't an insult? And even if it _were_ an insult, Sareena's disdain simply wouldn't be important enough to be worth _caring_ about. It shouldn't bother her...so why _did_ it?

Ahsoka sighed, as she decided to pace around the corridors surrounding the hangar. As much as she didn't want to think about it, Sareena's analysis would describe _Anakin_ quite well. And he had the exact tendency Sareena was worried about, charging into things without stopping to think about anyone else who might be involved. _She_ kept up with him easily, but the clones in their command weren't always lucky. And these days...

She briefly clinched her eyes shut and let the thought, that Anakin himself was as much a victim of Darth Vader's oppression as the rest of the galaxy, slide through her mind without stopping.

The thought of turning into another Anakin, letting her own determination bring tragedy to everyone around her, was frightening. And to think that it had already happened and she just hadn't noticed—

No.

However she felt about him, and whatever she learned from him, she was _not_ Anakin. She, nor _he_ , nor _anyone else_ could afford for her to inherit his weakness. She would fight him off inside her own heart, if she had to. Exercising more control over her impulses should be a breeze by comparison, so if that was all it took, so much the better.

She hoped that was all it took.


	4. Chapter 4

The solitary asteroid visible outside the cockpit was their destination, but it didn't _look_ identifiably the same as where they'd been several days ago; Sareena had been to several asteroid outposts, and giant brown rocks were a blur in her memory.

The eager young voice on the traffic control channel, however, she remembered. "Hey," he said, "weren't you guys _just_ here?"

"Yes," Sareena affirmed, "and our client was so pleased with what we found, they want us to see if there's anything _else_ they're looking for here."

" _Really_?" he answered with suspicious disbelief.

"Hey, if they want to pay in advance to even _look_ for their long shot, who am _I_ to complain? Maybe we'll even _find_ something."

"Sounds like a nice job...You've been cleared to dock, landing beacon is active. Have a nice visit!"

"Thanks," she said before turning off the comm. He seemed pleasant enough.

Of course, he was also just the guy sitting in a room chatting all day. She looked at Beril in the pilot seat beside her. "I get the feeling they're not used to repeat guests like us," she said, "so keep an eye out for any...surprises."

"Trivial," Beril declared with boredom.

"Alright," Sareena said as she looked back at Rian and Ahsoka. "We'll be landing in a couple minutes, so let's go over the plan one last time: The dealers are unlikely to have detailed records of origin, so we'll need to 'borrow' the station's traffic logs. Beril and Laani will handle the computer network, while—"

"Actually," Beril cut in quickly, "I've been thinking about it, and Laani should go with _you_ ; I can slice a system myself, and you might need her mechanical familiarity."

"Whatever," Ahsoka answered noncommittally.

Sareena blinked. "I'm a little worried about a fight breaking out while you're preoccupied."

"Don't worry, I won't be anywhere near the ship."

She sighed. "It's not the _ship_ I'm worried about, _Beril_."

Beril paused for only a second. "I appreciate that, but—"

"Trade?" Rian asked.

"Whatever," Ahsoka answered in the exact same tone as before.

"...that'll work," Beril agreed.

Sareena darted her eyes between Beril and Ahsoka suspiciously. "Fine," she sighed. "Beril and _Rian_ will handle the computer network. I'll still be checking out the traders, in case they've got helpful information about the salvagers or whoever. But Laani, I don't want anyone seeing you by yourself and hoping to luck into a couple million credits, so we'll _both_ check out the traders."

Ahsoka crossed her arms. "You're _really_ going to leave the ship unoccupied," she said with disapproval, "just to keep an eye on _me_?" She clearly wasn't thrilled with the idea. Sareena didn't particularly like it either, though she suspected Ahsoka was actually more concerned with the pairing than the vehicle.

But she saw no alternative. She knew Beril's habits, the girl brought this up at the last minute to keep Ahsoka away from her. Ordering Ahsoka to go anyway was going to provoke a volatile battle of wills at _best_. Rian couldn't guard the ship and Beril at the same time, and his presence would make the traders far too nervous. And having Ahsoka handle the traders on her own would be even riskier than having her stay behind at the ship, as a great many more people would see her in public.

So it was time to find out how well she and Ahsoka worked together, without a thrill between them. " _None_ of us are expendable," Sareena stated emphatically, answering that angle of Ahsoka's statement. "Not _Beril_ , not _you_ , not _Rian_. I bet there's another light freighter ready to go at the drop of a hat back home, while we _can't_ be replaced. And if that isn't enough, a fight breaking out will draw as much unwelcome attention as Beril slicing right outside the door would. Now, if any of you have a better arrangement in mind, let's hear it."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, but no one said anything.

"Alright then," Sareena said. "Beril, can you set the ship's security systems to notify us via comlink if there's a break-in attempt or someone loitering in bug-planting range or whatever?"

"Of course I can," she said cheerily.

"Good, that'll give us extra time to react if there's some sort of problem."

"And I assume we won't want Rian _too_ far from the ship?"

Rian scoffed. "Duh."

Sareena continued before Beril had a chance to say anything in response. "If you guys can find a spot to watch the ship without _looking_ like you're watching the ship, all the better. Now, are there any _other_ last-minute alterations I should know about?"

"That depends," Beril said, "on whether those guys with the blasters are waiting for _us_. That'd be new..."

Sareena shot a look at the viewscreen. Just behind the open landing pad, there were two uniformed men with blaster rifles, flanking another uniformed man with his hands crossed behind his back.

"It certainly _looks_ like a customs inspection," she said. This _was_ officially a colony of some neighboring planet, after all.

"Unless we're acting suspicious all of a sudden," Beril noted, "we're set to land in about thirty seconds."

That didn't leave much time for dilly-dallying. "Rian?"

"Doubt it's an ambush," he answered the implied question, "they'd be easy prey if we had any 'aftermarket' shipboard weapons. Who walks into that? You and I meet them at the bottom of the ramp, we'll play it by ear. And maybe upside their heads."

"I'll have our escape ready if it gets ugly," Beril declared.

"Don't worry about _me_ ," Ahsoka said casually.

Fortunately there was nothing to argue about, with the time she didn't _have_ to argue. "Alright, let's go."

* * *

Rian followed behind Sareena as she walked down the loading ramp at a deliberate pace, as the trio of human officers approached the bottom of the same ramp. She was the registered captain with the accredited license, after all; dealing with officials would be _her_ job. Even better, he looked bigger when compared to her, even before considering the height the angled ramp gave him; and the three men had noticed, judging by their nervous looks.

"Can we help you gentlemen?" Sareena asked earnestly.

"We're here to inspect the freighter," the middle man answered, easing his face into a neutral expression. Rian noted that the man, who he presumed was the lead officer since he wasn't carrying a rifle like his buddies, was only slightly taller than Sareena. That meant he was quite short; Sareena was in fact noticeably taller than average for a woman, but still within the normal range and nowhere near tall enough to offset the male/female average height difference. His build didn't suggest significant musculature either, so he wouldn't pose a primary threat if a fight broke out.

"Well that should be easy, since we're not _carrying_ any cargo," she answered.

"Not the cargo," he declared as his guards reflexively squeezed the grips of their rifles, "the freighter."

"Is something wrong with the ship's registration?" she asked after a brief, and presumably calculated, pause.

"No. Now I'll have to ask you to step aside."

Rian plotted quickly. Both of the blaster rifles were facing off to the side, away from Sareena and himself. Presumably to avoid provoking him, which was wise; the three were close enough that he could overpower them before the two guards could take aim.

"I...think I need to know _why_ first," Sareena countered with just a hint of irritation. Surely she already knew their uniforms weren't Imperial, and the local authorities had more legal restrictions to uphold.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it," he replied matter-of-factly.

Rian scoffed. "Yeah, I bet you're not at liberty to discuss the absence of a scanning crew for a ship inspection _either_ ," he said sarcastically, slowly straightening his posture to add a few more centimeters to his height.

" _No_ ," he replied sourly, "I'm _not_."

Rian was ready to disarm them, but Sareena interrupted before things could escalate. "Look," she said firmly, before lowering her voice. "You're about two people short for a customs inspection _anyway_ , so why don't you tell me what's _really_ going on here, hmm?" She then did something with her hand, though he couldn't tell _what_ ; the subtle movement of her shoulder was all he could see.

He didn't have to wonder for long, as he _did_ see the officer take an object from her. A credit chip, specifically. "Customs has flagged numerous ships docking here for inspections," he whispered, "including yours, and we don't have the resources to _fully_ examine each and every one."

"So you're rushing inspections that look thorough instead of prompting Imperial Customs to place a garrison here to support agents of their own. Examine our empty cargo bay, if that's what you're after; we don't want to waste _your_ time any more than we want to waste _ours_."

Before they had a chance to object or agree, Sareena walked calmly around them, to the right. When she was directly to the side of the men, she quickly thrust her right hand a short distance from her hip, with her fingers and thumb spread apart but slightly curled. She just as suddenly relaxed, but the meaning of the gesture, hidden from the officers by the rest of her body, was obvious: the near man was going to discover how quickly she could draw and fire a hidden blaster if there was any trouble.

She then turned to face the three of them. "Come along," she said, "You won't need to worry about our pilot." That hint was equally obvious: They didn't need to know about Laani in advance. Or preferably, at all.

Rian simply took two steps to the left, keeping the group in striking distance; they could go past him on their own. "Think you could buy some load lifter droids with our fee _this_ time?" he asked. Maybe they'd prefer to think his job was hauling crates instead of pounding heads.

"I'm sure I _could_ ," she responded noncommittally, as the officers warily made their way up the ramp.

Sareena cautiously moved up the ramp well behind them, stopping at Rian's side. When the officers were out of view, she sighed.

"Great," she added sarcastically under her breath.

"This isn't suspicious at all," he said with the same sarcasm.

"Certainly more attention than I'd like."

As if on cue, there was a sensation of motion at the edge of Rian's peripheral vision; he turned his head in that direction. The landing area was quite sparsely populated, but it wasn't _empty_ ; three technicians were busy on other ships, all of them too far away to overhear. All he saw at the point his vision had indicated was a vacant corridor entry. There was no way to tell if someone had been watching or not; much less if they were watching the ship, the inspectors, or the two of them.

Not that it would make that much difference _now_ , any possible observer was already gone. "And more than I think we know about. _That_ could change things."

Sareena exhaled sharply. "We better get inside before they think they need free run of the ship."

* * *

The customs people, fitting Ahsoka's expectations, didn't find it worth their time to _actually_ search beyond the empty cargo bay. If they had, they could possibly have found the concealed compartments with Rian's military-grade gear, Beril's hidden supplies, or Ahsoka herself. Not that she would have a problem using the Force to "convince" them they didn't need to search for anything they'd get killed over, but no action meant no possibility of a trail leading back to her.

As it was, they had left of their own accord, leaving no short-term problem but unpleasant long-term implications.

"I don't like surprises," Sareena was fuming as she walked circles in the freighter's cargo bay. "Especially not a _second_ time in a row," she added, glancing at Ahsoka.

"Local customs probably didn't like the surprise _either_ ," Beril guessed. "It's not like Imperial Customs is known for its transparency, they likely mentioned it when we started docking and not a moment sooner."

"I suppose," Sareena said, "but he said numerous ships that frequent _here_. What are the odds that they aren't looking specifically for _us_?"

"Slim," Rian declared, "but if they _recognized_ us they'd have locked us down already, not given us advance warning. And this _is_ the same ship we took here before."

"They could be trying to backtrack the engine to find us," Ahsoka suggested, "same way we're trying to backtrack the engine to find the ship it came out of."

Sareena stopped pacing. "But how would they even know—"

"The bounty," Beril cut in. "You know, the one on a Jedi that didn't mention the fact, with a big enough price tag to guarantee a capture attempt?"

Ahsoka's heart sank. Was the Emperor truly after her as Vader had claimed, or was Vader trying to beat him to it? His determination certainly hadn't waned over the years, any more than her own. "So you think the whole thing's a ploy to provoke a spectacle?"

"It worked, _didn't_ it?" Beril countered. "Besides, they wouldn't have to pay unless one of them actually managed to capture a Jedi alive."

"Assuming that claiming the bounty wasn't a ruse for an execution," Rian commented.

"Great," Ahsoka commented with all the sarcasm she could muster, "now the _Empire's_ after me because some thugs can't tell Togruta apart."

Sareena took a deep breath. "If they aren't following the engine itself, we should be safe once we get out of here. But if they're after _you_...or more accurately, who they think you _are_...OK, change of plans: We're not going to check out the traders if Beril and Rian find enough to follow up on. Laani and I will stay onboard...in the cockpit, so we'll be ready in case the Empire is just slow on the draw and we need to take off _while_ Beril is coming up here."

Rian turned his head slightly to look directly at Sareena. "Too early to think they _aren't_ after the engine, isn't it?"

"Well, if they're after _both_ then the point still stands, we'll just have more hassles after we leave."

"Wouldn't make an _immediate_ difference," Ahsoka agreed. She wanted to protest the part of the plan where she was stuck in close proximity to Sareena, but she couldn't see a way to do it without undercutting her earlier statement of wanting to stay inside the ship. And the thought that her own pettiness could be turned against her was more of a concern than anything that might jeopardize the mission or inconvenience her personally.

"So anyway," Sareena continued. "While you're in there, Beril, see what you can find out about the ships in the _other_ inspections we just heard about; I'd like to _avoid_ relying on nice-sounding guesses."

"Piece of cake," Beril answered dismissively. "You know...it's going to look really suspicious if we haven't even _looked_ for anything here to haul off, especially after you told the one guy we're here specifically _to_ look for something."

"True...well, one step at a time; we'll figure the rest out after you and Rian get back. Speaking of, it's been long enough for customs to get back to their duties, so I don't think there's any need to wait longer. You already grabbed the encrypted comlinks, right?"

"Yep."

"Let us know if things turn bad...and _only_ if they turn bad, we'll do the same. Don't want to risk someone asking why we're encrypting our comms."

"Sheesh, Sareena, don't you have a treatment for acute paranoia? This isn't exactly an Imperial installation, here."

Sareena exhaled slowly. " _Look_. The whole bounty-ploy plot we're assuming? Means nothing without some way for them to _actually_ deal with a Jedi. And if the search is ongoing right _here_..." She looked at Ahsoka, and pointedly asked, "Do _you_ want to deal with the frustrations of whatever the Empire values at two million credits?"

So she was asking if Ahsoka wanted to deal with her _own_ frustrations. Cute, though not cute enough for her to answer the oblique question. "I'd rather face an army of battle droids. All _they'd_ do is kill me; the Empire would want to be completely sure who I was _before_ killing me. And they don't ask _nicely_."

Rian scoffed. " _There's_ an understatement..."

"So the sooner we get this done," Sareena continued undaunted, "The sooner we can get out of this mess. Let's get a move-on."

Beril and Rian walked down the ramp together, while Sareena headed up to the front of the ship. Ahsoka paused, wondering if Beril had a point about Sareena's degree of caution. She closed her eyes and reached out with the Force, attempting to ferret out any sense of danger; but it felt as though she was the biggest threat in the vicinity, herself.

"Come along, _Laani_ ," Sareena commanded down a corridor.

She growled softly, before jogging towards the cockpit herself. She didn't need the assistance of the Force to beat Sareena to the door.

"Do you enjoy bossing us around, by any chance?" Ahsoka asked sarcastically.

"No," Sareena answered flatly, "I don't."

The imperfectly disguised sadness in her voice, and the way she actively avoided eye contact as she walked past, defused Ahsoka's immediate irritation. There was _something_ there she didn't have time to figure out. "Why do _both_ of us need to be up here, then?" she asked neutrally. "There isn't even a copilot console."

Sareena took a long, deep breath; and stood with her back against one of the side walls. "I know you flew fighters during the Clone Wars, you have more defensive piloting experience than I have. And you're a highly competent engineer, that's _officially_ why you're here in the first place. But, while I'm sure _you_ could almost pull it off, you can't actually be in both parts of the ship at the same time."

"So you're the backup backup pilot."

"Yes. If both the _talented_ pilots are unavailable, it falls to me."

"What about Rian?"

"Rian, the career foot soldier? I'm sure he could handle flying _casually_ , but it'd be more of a flying _casualty_ scenario."

Now that the chances of an internal conflict seemed nil, Ahsoka turned her attention towards the chances of an _external_ conflict; she could deal with Sareena later. "Speaking of avoiding casualties...I doubt Beril deactivated the outside cams before she left."

"Seems unlikely," Sareena agreed as she turned around, and worked some controls on the wall beside her. "And sure enough," she said as a set of screens came to life, "there they are."

The screen showed Beril walking with dominant body language, as though she owned the place; and Rian keeping up with her, the movement of his feet awkwardly slow to avoid outpacing Beril's much shorter legs. It'd have been comical, if it hadn't made her think of how it must have looked to the Jedi Masters when she tried to lead Anakin around all those years ago. She took a deep breath, and shoved the memories away.

"Problem?" Sareena inquired curiously.

Must have been a deeper breath than she thought. "Nothing in particular," she responded. "Let's hope it _stays_ that way."

"I hear _that_."


	5. Chapter 5

The first rule of getting free run of a place: Act like you already have free run of the place. That was Beril's approach to the mission. She had questions, the station had answers; getting the two to meet was just details. Details like pulling the wall panel off its wall, exposing the inconsistent mass of cabling.

Rian was there to help with the second rule of getting free run of a place: Convince everyone that you _better_ have free run of the place. It didn't take him much effort either, he simply _looked_ like cooperation was in everyone's best interests.

Setting the panel aside didn't take any _mental_ effort, so she quickly considered the surroundings while she gently lay it aside the wall next to her. It was hardly the fanciest docking bay in existence: Metal sheeting comprised the floor, the bottom two meters of the perimeter, a small expanse around each corridor access, and a large section around the single large bulkhead door; the rest of the place was exposed rock. Which made each doorway obvious, and the density of traffic through each easy to gauge; she'd found this secluded computer terminal before she even stepped onto the dingy floor.

This wasn't the docking bay they'd been guided to during their recent visit, _that_ one was shiny and well-lit. And quite a bit larger than this little run-down retrofit cavern thing, which was going to struggle with the next light freighter that tried to find a spot to land. Beril didn't like fancy docking bays anyway, but that wasn't the important part: This bay would be _intended_ for maintenance personnel, not traders. If the Customs dragnet thing was severe enough for them to break out the bottom-of-the-barrel landing areas...

She'd ponder all the implications later, she didn't want to hear Sareena complain about "stalling" again. The wires were an intertwined mess, but there was an open socket in easy reach; she pulled out her custom datapad, plugged it in, and got to work. She'd taken the liberty of acquiring some access codes during the last trip, and the outpost's security procedure proved too ineffective to have invalidated them since then.

Her fingers danced over the keypad as she navigated across disparate systems. Maintenance records, environmental history, traffic logs, inspection documents, accounting...She chose general housekeeping as the first place to make some adjustments.

"Company?" Rian whispered. Knowing that was the signal for potential "interested" visitors, she quickly finished copying biometrics into the record she had just added. The transfer completed right as she heard the approaching heavy footfalls.

"What do you think you're doing?!" demanded a gruff male voice. The degree of insistence suggested he didn't want an argument, and the "halt" command not conforming to Imperial protocols meant this wasn't Imperial security. The combination was good for her, not so much for _him_.

Placing a stern look on her face, she quickly forced herself to a standing position, using the distracting motion to push the datapad out of sight. Glaring at the source of the noise indicated not only that the young man was lacking an Imperial uniform, unlike herself, but also that he was accompanied by some type of humanoid-shaped droid. The Empire frowned on droids in public-facing positions, as a matter of de facto policy.

"Imperial business," she answered, deliberately sounding aloof and impatient at the same time. "A better question is what do you think _you're_ doing, hmm?"

"Officer Mar," the droid stated in a clearly synthesized voice. Almost certainly a security droid, then; she made a mental note of the conclusion. "Your arrival was not on record."

That was why she planted the falsified credentials _first_ , after all. "Clearly organization is not the word of the day," she declared snidely. "Now if you'll excuse yourselves, I have work to do."

"But...I have procedures to follow," the security man said, clearly uncomfortable.

She rolled her eyes. "So do I. But I guess if you want to shut down landing pads so I can follow protocol _properly_ —"

His eyes widened. "I'm not sure that's—"

"Don't worry," she cut him off nonchalantly, "it'll be fine. Protocol says my escort here is supposed to be in armor too, I bet everybody would _love_ to see a stormtrooper behemoth firsthand. Maybe they'll tell all their fellow merchants about it."

"...maybe procedural details aren't worth causing headaches for the administrator."

"Well then," she said flatly, "Perhaps you should leave me to do my system inspection, while you prevent interference with normal operations from occurring."

"Very well, Officer Mar," he said after a short pause, clearly trying to put on a facade of decorum. "Come along, Tee-Eight," he ordered his droid companion.

Beril slowly returned to a crouching position, watching the two of them walk away from the site of her operation.

 _Sucker._

She turned her head to look up at Rian behind her.

He was simply standing there with his arms at his sides, staring at the wall as if he were a trooper standing at attention. His eyes did swivel to meet hers, however.

"What?" she asked softly, dropping her facial and vocal facade.

He wordlessly crossed his arms in response.

She shrugged. "Yes, I know, I got work to do."

"We do, so do it."

She ignored him, and picked her datapad back up. She enjoyed the brief periods of his silence, and they lasted longer when she didn't give him something to respond to.

She navigated to the station's security logs. Their buddy T8 clearly had a connection to pull her forgery over...

"OK," she muttered to herself, "The droid didn't log us while they were standing here, so no need to rush out."

"Didn't see droids working for the port last time," Rian commented quietly.

"Me either, or I'd have handled it in advance. Better get our stuff in case someone starts a rumor."

"Getting something extra?"

How did he keep _doing_ that? "Maybe. You know what."

The station had an active HoloNet connection, with which she could tap into Imperial databases without anyone being able to connect it to Beril. That was why she ditched Laani, it was unlikely she'd appreciate being a subject of inquiry, and Beril didn't want to risk her finding out.

After setting her search up to bounce around the station, she turned to the trivial task of gathering the logs Sareena wanted. The frequency of customs inspection log entries for the last couple days was furious, compared to the lazy couple-a-day rate it was before. While downloading those days' entries, she checked the arrival and departure logs for every ship between when the _Silver Sparrow_ was last spotted and when they had left this station the last time.

Interesting...she intended to go over all the data in detail back on the ship, away from so many obnoxious eyes; but from the vehicle identifiers she remembered, _every_ ship that'd been inspected had also arrived during that time period at least once. Unlikely to be a coincidence. It could be a really lousy day for any ship with a Togruta crewmember...Which included _their_ ship, of course. It was a good thing no one knew Laani was even there.

Speaking of Laani, a blue blinking shape in the corner of Beril's datapad screen indicated the search had concluded. Something else she'd have to examine in depth later...A quick glance didn't reveal anything that looked more unusual than a non-clone serving in a role usually reserved for clones, but the records looked sparse, like she was deployed _very_ infrequently. Which could be true...

Beril glanced around. No undue attention...She started another search, this time for whoever that Ahsoka was. No sense being bashful about the subject of the bounty, Laani'd already been dragged into it whether she wanted it or not.

While _that_ was running, she checked through her finally-downloaded records for the ship they'd followed from here that eventually led them to the _Sparrow's_ engine...And found it had arrived once, and departed once, in the middle of the timespan she was checking. Highly convenient; for it to have left with the engine, one of the ships before it had to have brought it, which narrowed the range of the ship search significantly.

The datapad notified her of the search's completion again. Quite a few more records of "Commander" Tano's deployments...and to Beril's recollection, the rank would mean Ahsoka was an apprentice to another Jedi, who would have the rank of General and likely lead the battle group she was deployed to. More for her to figure out later; the next leg of their journey was likely to be a boring trip to a barely-inhabited system, she'd have time to burn anyway.

A cold shiver suddenly manifested on her shoulder. She quickly turned her head to look behind her, in her best guess of the direction the "you're being watched" sensation came from.

Her view went across the entire width of the hangar bay to end at the exposed rock on the opposite side. Rock so dimly lit, it almost didn't qualify as lit. She didn't see anyone milling around in that direction, though she couldn't be sure that meant no one was _there_. And she'd already checked for surveillance equipment and hidden alcoves in the rock; if anything mechanical _had_ been deployed it had to have been done after she was already on the floor, and she'd like to think _someone_ would've noticed.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rian's otherwise stoic form cast a look of suspicion in her direction. No sense hanging around to _guarantee_ someone could be watching. "Thought someone was watching us," she whispered as she began disconnecting her datapad from the socket.

"I thought so when the 'captain' and I came out, too," he commented in the same hushed tone.

Not mentioning Sareena by name _would_ mean he wouldn't need to check for eavesdroppers, she supposed. "Well, no sense wasting more time here," she said as she put the panel back where she found it.

She got on her feet and, after putting her datapad away, deliberately walked towards the nearby corridor entry, with Rian following behind her. As the door slid open, she noticed the corridor was much better lit than the expanse of the docking bay. A matter of width, she knew; providing adequate light across a few meters was a heck of a lot easier than doing so across a few _hundred_ meters.

As soon as she determined there was no one ahead of or behind them, she quickly removed the Imperial insignia she was wearing, relaxed her posture, and shifted her pace to a casual speed to end up walking besides Rian rather than in front of him. Without the Imperial markings or bearing, she just appeared to enjoy wearing black...which _was_ true, after all.

"Well _that_ was fun," she commented playfully. No one who hadn't seen her in character would recognize her as the same person, and taking the long way around to the ship should keep anyone who _had_ seen her in character from noticing her now.

"Anything genuinely helpful?"

"Of course."

"About our job or your curiosity?"

"...Yes."

* * *

Back in the ship's cargo bay, Rian stood in the corner, watching and listening while the other three were holding a discussion a few meters away.

"Obviously," Beril was telling Sareena, "the ship that brought the _Sparrow's_ engine here had to have arrived _before_ the ship that took it away actually took it, and _after_ the _Sparrow_ went missing."

"So if we have a list of every ship that arrived between those two times," Sareena said while she thought through the statement, "one of them _has_ to be the one we're looking for."

"There aren't many that could actually _hold_ the engine," Laani added, "so we go through the list."

"Starting with the one that's docked here _now_ ," Beril suggested.

Rian remembered way back, when he was first starting out at the Corellian Security Force, that a few of the lieutenants were particularly dismissive towards women officers. It always seemed like willful short-sightedness to him, like it was simply convenient to have a low opinion without finding a reason to have a low opinion first. He preferred to avoid the unpleasant surprises that came with ignoring the exceptional. A great many people over the years assumed _he_ was just a dimwitted brute, after all; the list of people who didn't come to regret that assumption was quite a bit shorter.

Not that he had any pretensions about _his_ intelligence on this assignment. He was looking at a girl who had danced around computer security since she was a teenager, a lady with a genuine medical education, and a woman who had to be on par with mechanics who were literally trained from birth to be engineers; he wasn't there for his _brainpower_. But viewing it as a competition was just more willful short-sightedness. They all had their roles to play, and the only people worth competing against were the opposition.

That was something he learned from Commander Sal. Or Thera Sal, technically, since she was discharged from CorSec shortly after he'd left...and quite probably _because_ he left, being his commanding officer. _She_ knew how to run a squad...which was the main reason he didn't think she had anything to do with the failed attempt on his life when he left, she'd have been there herself and not let the attempt be so disorganized, if she were in charge of it. Sareena was no Thera...but then, Sareena wasn't leading a team of law enforcement agents so elite they bordered on paramilitary; why would she _need_ to be the same?

"Something wrong, Rian?" Sareena asked.

"Besides the thought that we're racing against some sort of Imperial anti-Jedi squad?" he countered. He hadn't been daydreaming, after all. "What could the Empire have that _wouldn't_ make short work of a freighter like the one we're _in_? It's not like conventional blasters are even an option."

"The Empire has a number of...I don't know, evil Jedi or something similar," Sareena explained.

"The point stands," Laani said firmly, "even if they just settle for a squad all armed with missile launchers. Not something _I'd_ want to be on the receiving end of."

"It isn't a race unless we _both_ know we're racing," Beril said pointedly.

"Right," he agreed, still facing Sareena. "Which means I'm staying here, since I was in both the welcoming party and the you- _better_ -be-welcoming party—"

"You _know_ that's how these things work!" Beril cut in defiantly.

"—and Laani's staying here," he continued without a pause, "because if this whole theory is correct then _she's_ their trophy."

Laani sighed. "That's sure how it looks," she agreed with resignation.

"So the _immediate_ question is what you and _Beril_ will do."

Beril rolled her eyes. "I did _say_ we'd start with the ship that's still docked here."

Sareena turned her head sharply towards Beril. "Can you find where the crew is _now_?"

"Of course, but why would that matter?"

"Suppose they're here to meet clients...or _as_ clients."

Laani leaned forward slightly. "And if they're _not_?"

"Our pre-arrival plan _was_ to track down traders, which we'd have to start by looking _somewhere_. Any arbitrary location is as good as any other, may as well be one that could give us _other_ leads."

"Hmm. And I suppose our plan if it fails is the same as if we didn't try: getting official itineraries for the whole list."

"Yep," Beril chimed in, "I _acquired_ all their transponder codes. If they're legitimate, or trying to _look_ legitimate, the Bureau of Ships and Services will have records of every legitimate spaceport they've ever docked at."

Rian snorted. "Because we already found the only engine in existence with fake transponder codes?" he asked sarcastically.

She sighed in exasperation. "Of _course_ not, but the codes I found had to be used _here_ to be in the spaceport records in the first place, _duh_. We can at _least_ rule out the squeaky-cleaners, and check for gaps in the ships' travel time for clues on where their shadowports might be."

He shrugged. That amounted to finding a series of systems to guess at looking in, but it was still a vast improvement over checking the _entire_ galaxy. A tolerable backup plan, at least, if Sareena's long shot at finding the trail _here_ didn't pan out. "Then what are the two of you waiting for?"

"First and foremost," Sareena declared, "for Beril to find the crew."

"And _after_ the triviality?" Beril prompted in response.

"We'll head there with...alternate uniforms."

Laani frowned skeptically. Her eyes darted back and forth between Sareena and Beril, with a noticeable diagonal motion. "You really think you can disguise your...heights?"

"Dunno about Miss Organa over there—" Beril started blithely.

Sareena hissed, cutting her off. "I'm far more worried about being placed here _together_ ," she explained, "than I am with either of us being spotted individually. Disguises will work well enough for our purposes."

Laani's face relaxed. "Well then, if Beril will get me the list of ships, I'll start filtering out the ones that can't house the engine."

Beril paused, but only for a split second. "Sure," she said with fake enthusiasm, "I can do that."

Laani's eyes widened slightly, before glancing suspiciously at Beril. "Good."

"And I guess _I'll_ stand here and look foreboding while you do the _real_ work," Rian added sarcastically, before Beril went beyond simply _tipping_ her hand on her suspicion.

Beril snorted. "You _are_ an expert, after all," she said playfully.

"The time for beating people into submission is _later_ ," Sareena said firmly. "Come along, Beril."

Beril rolled her eyes, but followed Sareena deeper into the ship, clearly feeling she'd pushed Sareena's patience enough. Beril was good at deciphering social cues, as any infiltrator had to be; But self-interest deeply colored her _concern_ for others' emotions, to the point that it was rarely _noticeable_ that she cared about anyone else. Rian knew better, of course, and not purely from first-hand experience.

Right then, though, that experience was telling him he had his usual part in Beril's games: drawing attention away from them. "So why couldn't we have checked this bureau's records back home?" he asked once Laani was the only person left in sight, before she had the chance to wonder about Beril's tone.

"Two reasons," Laani answered. "Most obvious is that we _still_ don't know if these were all reported back to the Bureau of Ships and Services. If they neglected to send some of them to BoSS for their own convenience, we'd have no way to know, short of coming here for their internal records _anyway_."

That was right. No sign of naivete there.

"Equally important," she continued, "is that the compiled information regularly distributed to spaceports doesn't include complete histories, and their databases are keyed off transponder codes. To even _try_ to narrow it down by location and time would require breaking into their private staging data, assuming something suitable even exists, or getting the history of _every_ ship in the _galaxy_ and then going through it all...which would be pointless if the visit wasn't reported in the first place. Meanwhile, looking up a bunch of transponder codes is trivial, at least from a technical perspective."

At least the gist of it was correct, as he didn't know that much about the minutiae himself. She was at least knowledgeable about the subject, which was outside her stated area of expertise. Which likely meant his question was too simple to throw her off Beril's trail, so he added another step just in case: "And you think the _local_ records are going to be accurate?"

"Probably, yes. This outpost is a colony, answerable to its parent planet, and all activity comes in or out through the spaceport. Falsified records _here_ mean someone's padding their account in a highly visible way, it'd be a huge risk. And if that _is_ happening, it'd be even _more_ suspicious for anything BoSS has to be missing from the local records, not to mention it'd make no sense. It's a draw at worst."

"Makes sense," he concluded. No sense letting her know she passed his test, that he was testing her, or that the test itself was a distraction. He figured he'd done enough to keep her from wondering about Beril.

"So is Beril _really_ as good as she thinks she is?" Laani asked.

Or maybe not. But there could be a new opportunity there.

"Usually," he answered with only a slight pause. Beril liked bragging about things she was talented with, after all. "Are _you_ as good as _Sareena_ thinks you are?"

She was taken off guard, but only for a second. "I don't _know_ how good Sareena thinks I am, so how could I _tell_?"

Distraction: Successful. "You didn't seem the sulky sort the first trip," he explained, "but that's how you sound whenever Sareena says anything to you _now_."

She glared at him briefly, before sighing. "Sareena thinks I won't blend in," she admitted, breaking eye contact.

"More than before?" he asked. "Hey," he protested when she scowled again, " _I'm_ not the moron who decided the best way to ensure everyone was safe is to intimidate everyone who isn't human. Moron probably thinks calling Coruscant 'Imperial Center' makes sense, too."

"She thinks I _could_ fit in," she said with a slight growl, "just that I _won't_."

He wouldn't dispute Sareena on that. Not that he'd have voiced his suspicions without more evidence backing them up, but Sareena was the boss so making calls like that _was_ her responsibility. And the defensive pride in Laani's tone of voice didn't do her any favors. "Try harder to prove her wrong, then," he said bluntly.

"You think I'm _not?_ " she countered defiantly.

"You sound too worked up _over_ blending in _to_ blend in," he replied snidely.

She looked right at his eyes with a frown across her face. He stared right back, slowly folding his arms. It'd take more than a staring contest to intimidate him, especially since it was looking like a draw; but he started to feel that she wasn't _trying_ to cow him into submission with no hope of success.

It was an intense, unwavering glare Laani was shooting at him. Being no stranger to this kind of contest, Rian knew wanting him to back off would have an icy glaze like the one he was using himself, and full-on murderous intent would flare like a nova. She had no fear, and didn't even consider him a threat. He was no stranger to _that_ critical oversight, either, though rarely from someone who wasn't packing heavy weaponry.

Nevertheless, she sighed and firmly turned her head to her left. "Fine," she muttered unconvincingly as she crossed her arms.

Rian thought _Beril_ could use that kind of self-restraint, he'd long since given up on counting the times he had to bail her out of a mess she confidently dove into. The two of them could _both_ use some improvement with their threat assessment, though. "You might do fine," he said, "if you quit stabbing yourself in the back."

Laani had turned her head to look in the opposite direction as he said the last word. And as he guessed, Beril came into the room. She was calmly walking to Laani with a datapad in her hand...and some sort of atrocious brown spiral of hair on her head. "Lost another bet?" he asked her mockingly.

"No. Maybe. _Shut up_." she responded defensively.

"No," he countered flatly.

Beril sighed sharply. " _Here,_ " she said to Laani as she held out the datapad, "have a list of ships."

"Thanks," Laani said as she took the datapad by the corner. He noticed she didn't even glance at Beril's transmogrified hair. Of course, Togruta didn't have hair of their own, maybe it just wasn't any stranger to her than it was before.

He heard Sareena before he saw her, and her heavy steps resembled marching more than walking. "No time to waste, Beril," she said as she strode through the cargo bay. Long black hair, a jet black jacket and deep blue pants...all in stark contrast to her cream-colored shirt. Must've been a sale at the "Smugglers Without Fashion" boutique.

Beril groaned as she left, since she had to break into a run to catch up with Sareena's determined pace.

"Comms," Laani called out after them, without actually looking in their direction. He almost missed her sliding the datacard out of the datapad Beril handed her.

"Got it," Sareena half-yelled in response, reminding him that the bay's sound damping field was active. He didn't miss Laani picking up a datapad off an empty crate and putting the datacard into it. He'd have been suspicious, if he hadn't seen Sareena put it there after some phase of the earlier discussion; as it was, Laani didn't trust Beril not to have done something to the datapad.

Which she wouldn't do. Beril liked seeing the excitement in her schemes, she'd only do something subtle if she was there to feel clever over how she was fooling everyone. But Laani didn't know Beril, any more than he knew Laani; it was prudent suspicion.

"So," Laani said while she was doing whatever with her datapad, "You want to keep an ear on the comm system? I'm just going to be hitting 'yes' and 'no' a lot with this thing."

"Where?" he asked.

"If it's all the same to you," she answered, "I was going to route it out here so we can both hear it."

She intended to respond too? "You _do_ realize you're more likely to draw trouble than they are, right?" he inquired.

That drew her attention away from her ship triage. "Yes," she said with some annoyance, "but if it's bad enough that they're _calling_ us, it's going to be too late for subtlety. We'll get through things faster if both of us are there."

No wonder Sareena didn't think she would blend in. "Fair enough. I doubt they'll get into anything Sareena can't handle, though." Sareena would talk Beril out of getting into something they couldn't handle. Again.

"I hope you're right."

* * *

Beril squinted as she took another sip of her bantha milk; the flavor was quite a bit more intense than she was used to in beverages. Which was why she ordered it, keeping her gustatory sense active would ensure her _other_ senses stayed sharp.

From her seat in one of the cantina's booths, she could see and hear the nearby tables, where Sareena was asking pointed questions to anyone who looked like they might be reselling starship components. It was all part of the plan: while they travelled near the cantina's entrance together, they entered separately; Sareena was already working the crowd when Beril got up to the bar.

Beril was keeping an eye and ear out for indirect reactions from that crowd. So far, that had been limited to a couple whispering to each other about how stupid Sareena's stupid shirt looked. Beril did agree that the vertical cream-colored stripe didn't go with the otherwise dark wardrobe; but the simple fact that no one had even glanced in Beril's direction since she sat down told her what Sareena had been thinking.

Sareena was paying attention too, of course. Beril knew because when the bartender gave her a weird look for wanting a drink as soft as bantha milk, she explained how she had to be ready for take off at a moment's notice and her captain was too cheap to buy provisions with _any_ flavor; Sareena paused midstep for a quarter of a second. She was _partially_ exaggerating, of course, and hadn't actually indicated Sareena one way or the other, but it was still funny.

Right now, though, Sareena was in the midst of what seemed like a fruitful conversation. "You'd really pay _that_ much for a hyperdrive?" a suspicious male voice was asking her.

"Of the same type, yes," Sareena confirmed casually. "My client can _afford_ to be picky, so I can _cover_ your expense of locating something so specific. If this were _easy_ I'd have already found one."

Beril's attention was briefly distracted by a Trandoshan in a beige flight suit walking in front of her on his way to the bar. "—but I can certainly put the word out for what _you're_ offering," she heard the man. She had her hidden monitoring device set to record both comms traffic and normal sound; if she _really_ wanted to hear the first half of his sentence, she could replay it later.

"That's for _intact_ ," Sareena clarified. "As long as the chromium casing is all there, or nearly all there, I can make it work; but my repair costs would have to come out of the final payment. I'm sure you understand."

"Of course. Now, about _my_ fee..."

Now a Zabrak walking in front of her draw Beril's attention...or more specifically, the horns rising out of her head. Beril's mind wandered over a series of hairstyles which would be improved if she had natural horns of that type, none of her attempts with prosthetics over the years had ever justified the cosmetic maintenance involved.

Realizing she had gotten distracted again, Beril reached for her overly strong beverage. But before she could put the glass to her lips, _another_ sight grabbed her attention. One that looked like she should've been paying attention to it already.

"Hey," one of the two human men walking towards the bar said with an air of control, "we don't like your kind here, lizzy." Trying to boss Trandoshans around made them feel better about themselves, apparently. And safety in numbers _was_ the traditional support system of speciesist stupidity. Though two was a pretty small number on their part, the claws weren't cosmetic.

Their target sighed softly. "Let me get you sssomething," he said casually, as he slowly turned in the direction of the bartender. Beril did note the attempt at patience, but it wasn't foremost on her mind. She'd known several Trandoshans during her childhood on Nar Shaddaa, with varying accents on their Basic...and the drawn-out hiss this guy was using was a blatant fabrication. It'd likely fool anyone who didn't know better, but why would he be trying to fool anyone over it in the first place?

The brown-haired man of the two declined by throwing a punch. It failed to connect, however; the Trandoshan, in an unusual display of agility for his species, pushed himself into a standing position before he could be hit. He wasted no time in slamming his opponent's head against the counter. His blond-haired accomplice clumsily charged forward, but his red-scaled target simply dodged before shoving him off to the side...and into the table Sareena was at.

Sareena jumped out of the way without taking her eyes off the fight, while her conversation partner was knocked over along with the table. She quickly stepped next to the support column separating two booths, putting her out of range of the fight while still in position to observe it. Beril knew the look in Sareena's eyes; she wanted to intervene on the Trandoshan's behalf, but couldn't justify the amount of attention she'd draw.

As the two men picked themselves up off the table, two others stood up and ran over, intent on entering the fray. Their target simply faced the center of the room, rather than any of the four combatants. Beril decided to release her grip on the glass she'd unconsciously set down on the table, deeming the container an inadequate weapon should the fight break in her direction.

The nearest man, not expecting to be seen from behind, charged in. He also wasn't expecting a Trandoshan to move fast enough for a scaled palm to strike his stomach, if the look on his face was any indication; the elbow that slammed into his face on his head's ground-ward descent didn't leave an opportunity for more facial evaluation.

Another human brandished a vibroknife, enough of a display for the other two humans standing to hold off. The Trandoshan exhaled loudly as he gently stepped away from the body on the ground, assuming some sort of defensive posture.

The vibroknife-wielder attempted to hit the Trandoshan with an overextended plunging motion from overhead, instead of the short stabbing thrust someone who actually knew what they were doing would try. Beril mentally sighed. What was the galaxy coming to when even _bar brawls_ were full of more incompetently amateurish incompetent amateurs?

A blur of red motion deftly illustrated the oversight: the Trandoshan grabbed the other man's arm on both sides of the elbow, and forced the knife into the human's own belly. Beril couldn't tell whether the man's cry of pain was a direct result, or because of the claws being dragged across his upper arm. Probably both.

"No blasters! No blasters!" the bartender yelled before diving behind the counter. Why did bartenders always do that? Did _anyone_ , in the history of _ever_ , actually put their blasters away in response?

With a snarl, the Trandoshan used a single hand to push his bleeding adversary off his feet. For a brief instant it seemed he had his own areas of incompetence, getting rid of a body to block blaster bolts with.

That brief instant was all it took for him to produce a glowing length of red energy. Beril hadn't been living under a rock during the Clone Wars, despite the feeling that she was living _on_ one at the time, so she of course recognized a lightsaber. The instant that passed before the firing started wasn't long enough to congratulate herself for recognizing the Jedi-bait ploy, she'd have to do that later.

With a smooth arc, the lightsaber intercepted the first shot almost as soon as she heard it fired, and the deflected bolt hit some spot on the metal floor. She hadn't seen anyone standing in the direction of the shot's origin _before_ , though. A quick check of her peripheral vision suggested there were about two more men, and one woman, in position to open fire around the room.

The Trandoshan didn't appear concerned. He calmly swung his lightsaber around himself in close arcs, blocking each of several blaster shots with little more than a twist of his wrist. The nearest shooter didn't even have the chance to be surprised when a single wide swing severed his arm...followed closely by his neck. The shooter's accomplice didn't have a chance either: an angled thrust blocked his next shot and punctured his heart with the same motion, before the lightsaber exited through his shoulder to intercept a bolt from behind.

Most of the would-be assailants were already fleeing the cantina by this point, while Beril knew that getting out of her seat would guarantee she'd be the next target. A realization shared by all the other bystanders, it seemed. Unfortunately for the remaining shooter, the last shot had earned her something she could only wish to return: the Trandoshan's attention.

He quickly turned to face her, adopting some weird stance with his right arm held behind him but pointing his weapon forward, with his other hand open a short ways in front of him. After a brief pause, he stretched the clawed fingers of his open hand, and the woman's blaster pistol was somehow pulled straight out of her grip, and flew through the air several meters to rest in his hand. He nonchalantly tossed the weapon towards the tip of his own, not even flinching at the sparks produced when the two made contact.

The disarmed woman turned to run. But with a snarl, the Trandoshan thrust his empty hand forward, and she was lurched through the air just like her blaster had been. It sounded like she had started to scream, but Beril couldn't tell; the lightsaber lazily bisected her skull while she was in mid-air, along with the rest of her body. The energy blade didn't counteract inertia, and both halves slammed into the booth to Beril's left with a slightly squishy thud. It seemed as though energy blades were effective at cauterizing flesh as well, as the only smell Beril could distinguish was burnt hair.

With the floor clear of other combatants, and with a noticeable trail of blood from the clawed and knifed man, it certainly looked like the fight was over. Beril resolutely stayed where she was, though; the continued presence of a lightsaber's hum meant a new conflict could start with minimal provocation, and end with another corpse just as quickly.

While the Trandoshan was slowly shaking his head at the aftermath, Beril spared a glance for her royal compatriot. Sareena appeared unharmed, but her eyes had that stoic gaze of hers, directed at the red-scaled man. As if she was studying his every move. Sensible to be sure, although Beril _really_ wanted to know what Sareena intended to _do_ if she were to become his target.

Beril had heard the heavy footfalls approaching from outside the cantina, but the sound hadn't seemed like a priority. Which was just as well: The running steps came into view, revealing the white armor of Imperial stormtroopers that made them; and that was a much higher priority in its own right. Beril tried not to look panicked at their arrival, which was rather easy when there was a slaughter machine with a lightsaber in the same room to be panicked about instead.

The Trandoshan faced them directly. "The situation does not require your attention," he declared as the red beam receded into the device in his hand. Beril noticed the counterfeit hiss was completely absent now...and no particular accent of Dosh took its place. Basic was his primary language, as far as she could tell. "Return to your posts."

"Of course, Inquisitor," the lead stormtrooper said with a salute. The Trandoshan _Inquisitor_ sighed, a vocal display anyone else would assume was a low hiss, before heading out into the corridor behind the Imperial troops. He was gently shaking his head on his way out, but Beril was pretty sure he'd made direct eye contact with her for a split second.

The rest of the cantina started clearing out in a hurry shortly after the stormtroopers were out of sight. Not getting trampled by walking into the flow of traffic seemed like a good idea, so she opted to remain in her seat for the moment.

The bustle of the mass exodus threatened to overshadow Sareena's voice, but Beril had experience with this kind of focused listening. "Will you be back in a week?"

"What?!" answered the man she'd been talking to earlier, before he was knocked to the floor he was presumably getting off of as he spoke. "With stormtroopers wandering around here? You're crazy!"

"Crazy enough to still pay your fee for doing your job, yes," she countered calmly.

By then, there were enough gaps in the outward stream of people for Beril to make out where Sareena and her hopeful hire were standing.

"Fine," he responded after a brief pause. "No promise anyone can make it here or have what you're looking for."

"The fee covers _your_ time and effort, does it not?"

He nodded. "It does, and you will have them," he agreed on his way out of the door.

The cantina was all but empty at that point. Sareena casually walked over by Beril's booth, where Beril got out of her seat to walk out beside her.

"I thought there _wasn't_ a garrison here," Beril asked, as the two of them headed towards the exit.

"So did I," Sareena answered without looking back.

"And what exactly is an 'Inquisitor'?"

"Follow me," Sareena commanded as the door opened, without answering the question.

Beril complied. The original plan was to split up to head back to the ship, much as they arrived at the cantina from different directions, but that was _before_ there was a risk of being ambushed by Imperial forces. A risk, she mentally noted, that would last at _least_ until they left the asteroid behind.


	6. Chapter 6

"Sounds like he's a Soresu practitioner," Ahsoka said thoughtfully in the transient privacy of the crew quarters on their freighter, "especially with the stance at the end."

Sareena had been intently observing the Trandoshan's actions throughout the conflict, with the hope of describing them well enough to get Ahsoka's input. Finally, one of her decisions was paying off. "What does that mean?"

"Oh, sorry. It's a thoroughly defensive lightsaber style. Let me guess: He deflected the blaster bolts with calm changes to his motion, and few of the bolts seemed to hit anything in particular?"

"They seemed to fly around randomly, in fact. He certainly didn't fight like _you_."

"Yeah, _Shien_ is all about the counterattack, particularly with blaster shots. I don't doubt he could do the same in less strenuous circumstances...But I'm sure you have more _pressing_ questions."

Since she was inviting questions likely to annoy her..."Couldn't you sense the Inquisitor or something?" Sareena asked.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and shook her head. "It's not that simple," she responded with a slight air of protest. "It's much easier if it's someone I have a personal connection to, or someone particularly strong in the Force; but ultimately it's up to the will of the Force whether I can feel their presence in a populated area like this."

Sareena took a deep breath. "Strong in the Force like...you?"

Ahsoka shot a glare back for a split second. "I've discovered a talent for hiding from this sort of attention. I'd be long gone otherwise, and I certainly wouldn't drag any of _you_ with me. And a _conscious_ attempt to find someone would make _me_ easier to find; I already _tried_ within the limits of safety and didn't find anyone Force-sensitive."

It sounded like a special kind of guessing game, more than anything else. But rather than see how _that_ comment was taken..."Since I'm sure Beril's going to be telling us what she found from her recon equipment soon, one last question: What exactly _are_ the Inquisitors, anyway?"

Ahsoka turned her head slightly. " _Officially_ , the Inquisitorius is a branch of Imperial Intelligence, with the special tasks of tracking down Jedi and providing...'enhanced interrogation', for those occasions where _conventional_ torture isn't up to the task. But they report directly to the Emperor."

Sareena paused for a moment. She knew what _that_ meant. "So _unofficially_ , they could do _anything_ in his name."

"Pretty much," she confirmed, "the Emperor and _others_ reporting to the Emperor are their only _real_ restraints. As to their abilities as individuals, they vary wildly; I've seen everything from erstwhile bounty hunters to failed Jedi Initiates. My guess is the Emperor's criteria are too restrictive for him to be picky. I've only noticed two things they all have in common. One, they're skilled with the dark side of the Force, though not impressively so."

"And the other?" Sareena asked after another brief pause.

"They're no match for _me_." Ahsoka answered firmly.

It sounded like arrogance to Sareena's ears. But she'd recently been thrown across a room by one of those lightning-throwing darksiders, as she later learned they were called...after she'd been shot in the shoulder of course, which put a haze of searing pain over her recollection. That was how she _met_ Ahsoka, who didn't even seem _annoyed_ by the threat. Ahsoka could very well _be_ more powerful than Sareena could imagine, if only because she didn't know enough to imagine the full scope of the power involved.

And of course, Ahsoka was there precisely _because_ she could deal with such unconventional threats. If all the team had needed was a _mechanic_ , there were candidates _far_ less likely to draw attention to themselves for Sareena to have chosen from. "I hope you're right," Sareena said with a hint of worry, "though not as much as I hope you don't have to prove it."

Ahsoka paused for a second. "Well _either_ way, I _won't_ let you down."

If nothing else, she didn't have to worry about the strength of Ahsoka's _motivation_. "I know."

A soft beep accompanied the door sliding open, and Beril waltzing in. "I've got good news," she said cheerily. "I am _awesome_."

Sareena rolled her eyes. Just what she needed right now, _another_ ego. "You'll have to be specific."

"You're no fun. Your guy started talking to his ship before he was out of range, so I found out which ship it was. It was on the list that survived Laani's filtering, but that isn't the awesome part."

Now it was Ahsoka's turn to roll her eyes. "If you keep this up, I'll have to question whether you're _actually_ awesome."

Beril scoffed. "Did _you_ determine his comms encryption was a simplistic algorithm? Or match the recorded sound to the recorded traffic to decrypt it? Or hear the guy on the other end of the once-encrypted conversation specifically _mention_ the area where they picked up ' **that sublight engine** '?"

"...no?" Ahsoka replied noncommittally.

"Didn't _think_ so."

Sareena sighed in relief. "Finally, all this trouble is _getting_ us something. Where?"

"'Like that sublight engine we got about six parsecs off Eriadu?', is what he said. Eriadu, of course, is where several hyperspace trade routes intersect, so having it nearby would be highly _convenient_ if you're in the business of selling or reselling."

"Eriadu is _also_ Grand Moff Tarkin's homeworld," Ahsoka added darkly.

Beril glared at Ahsoka, but only for a fraction of a second. "As much as I'd love to argue with Laani, she's right. Cavorting around a Grand Moff's pet sector is a problem waiting to happen for anyone who's not a friend of the Empire...like, _us_."

Sareena looked at Beril. "And I suppose we'd have to check all the systems five-to-seven parsecs from Eriadu in every direction, and hope the salvage depot we're looking for isn't well-hidden. Except of course, these guys are also _pirates_ so they'd have a hard time operating near a major system _without_ being well-hidden."

"Right. Enough merchant traffic goes through Eriadu itself that we could get _there_ without much suspicion, but a system-by-system sweep is another matter entirely."

"Well, that settles it. Our next stop is Eriadu."

Beril and Ahsoka both looked at her. "And _then_ what?" Beril demanded.

"I know a guy," Sareena explained. That wasn't counting the time she helped staff the local resistance's hospital, though..."Actually _several_. They'll know the region, and we'll need to be in the general vicinity anyway, so it's worth a _shot_. In any case, get our course plotted now; the sooner we get away from lightsaber maniacs, the better."

"I hear ya," Beril agreed as she turned around and left the way she came.

Ahsoka didn't speak until a couple seconds after the door closed. "I hope you're right about losing him so easily."

Sareena took a deep breath. She was expecting something indignant about being called a maniac. "Me too. But he couldn't have seen _you_ since you were in here the whole time, so why would he even consider tracking us? No sense _worrying_ about him finding us instead of _preventing_ him from finding us."

"True enough."

* * *

Beril sighed. "Do I _have_ to stay on the ship?" she complained at the other two occupants of the cargo bay, which had somehow become the unofficial meeting area.

" _Yes_ , you _do_ ," Rian said firmly as he crossed his arms.

"Well _I_ won't stop you," Laani said, "but there's nothing worthwhile out there for us."

Beril rolled her eyes at Rian. "So _Sareena_ gets to go out for fresh air while _I'm_ cooped up... _we're_ cooped up here?"

Laani snorted. "If Eriadu's resistance is cautious enough that they wouldn't care if she vouched for us, they're probably not the partying sort. And as the person who hasn't set foot off this ship since we left _Alderaan_ , I can assure you that whatever scent wafted in while the cargo bay door was open, it was _not_ 'fresh air'."

"Typical," Beril said patronizingly as she slowly shook her head. "Natives of Alderaan, Corellia, Shili...Maybe if you came from a _modern_ world like Nar Shaddaa instead of fetid nature-dominated planets, you'd have a better appreciation of what civilization is _supposed_ to smell like."

"Let me know when Nar Shaddaa stops importing food from those so-called 'fetid' places," Laani countered snidely. "And the ultra-urban Coruscant didn't impress me, but _its_ air still managed to smell like _air_ instead of _chemicals_."

"Well _duh_ , Coruscant is a world for _bureaucrats_ ; all _they_ do is look progressive without any progress. _Real_ progress is real creation, and you can _smell_ real creation."

"Funny, that's how I feel about _fresh air_. Weren't you saying that's what's outside the door in this little corner of the spaceport?"

"Yes, because I know what fresh air actually _is_. And it's not the stale stuff circulating in here, or the fragrance-masked stuff I had to tolerate back on Alderaan. Sure, it does the job air is supposed to, but it's strictly substandard."

Laani paused for a second, then looked askance at Beril. "Are you _really_ so bored that you're arguing about air pollution standards?"

"Why, would you rather talk about Coruscant instead?" Beril countered sarcastically, ignoring the accuracy of Laani's comment.

"It'd be a short speech," Laani responded, "a handful of sprawling estates floating on an ocean of urban towers. The _Navy_ didn't hang around on the _surface_ enough for sightseeing, you know."

Beril's mind raced. During the trip she'd gone over the records she acquired from the Empire, and the biggest overlap in Laani's and Ahsoka's records was at Coruscant. A prime digging point if ever there was one. "Not even the...Jedi Temple? What'd _that_ thing look like?"

Laani paused, but only briefly. "Like five horns rising out of a metal block," she said softly, "watching the rest of the planet without seeing they were never part of it."

Rian rejoined the conversation. "Not a fan of the Jedi, I'm guessing?" Good, he caught the hint she didn't have to give now.

Laani turned her head sharply to face him. "Well they were _supposed_ to keep maniacs with red lightsabers from running around and killing as they pleased." She then turned back towards Beril. " _I'm_ not impressed with the quality of their performance. Are _you_?"

Beril shivered. She had heard about and seen video of those guys, but it was a very different sort of apprehension to actually be in the same room with one. People who walk into firestorms, eviscerate whoever they like, and leave unharmed; just as easily as she breathed..." _Heck_ no. And the Jedi worked with the Republic, which is now the Empire that's _fielding_ those guys. _Someone_ in one of those horns screwed up _big time_."

Laani sighed. "They most certainly did."

That wasn't particularly informative, with what Sareena said about that Ahsoka being framed by another Jedi she would have a dim view of the Jedi leadership herself. Maybe throwing her on the spot would knock something loose..."Do you happen to know that woman the bounty's actually _for_?"

A scowl immediately formed on Laani's face. "Why?" she demanded. "The Emperor's human, do you happen to know _him_? Maybe you'd like to ask if I met _Shaak Ti_ , too?"

"Well since you apparently know how to pronounce their names off—"

"They're not _outlandish_ Togruti names," Laani interrupted vehemently, "and **no**. Despite the _other_ assumptions that all Togruta who share a skin color _automatically_ know each other—"

"—That's not what—"

"I was never assigned directly under either of their commands, though course I had heard _of_ each of them! Are there any _other_ stereotypes you'd like me to disabuse your technophiliac self of, or are you _good_?"

"...sorry?" Beril offered sheepishly. Whether she'd overextended her attention or just been outwitted, subtlety was out of the question for the near future and it'd be best if she didn't admit that.

Rian sighed deeply as he shook his head in disapproval. "Shortsightedness _aside_...Where were you _actually_ deployed?" Was he rubbing it in or trying to help her recover? She couldn't tell the difference anymore.

Laani took a deep breath as she slowly turned to face him. "Well, the world I remember the most is Felucia. Giant phosphorescent mushrooms everywhere...now _that_ was a fetid nature-dominated planet."

Time to dodge attention. "Weren't you sent there a while back, Rian?" Beril said.

"Yeah, they needed some muscle to cover the extraction of some refugee village. Poisonous lifeforms, hostile lifeforms, _poisonous_ hostile lifeforms, the occasional Imperial blaster...Ranged from 'obnoxious' to 'nothing my powered armor can't handle'."

"Is your armor _really_ that good?" Laani asked, her attention suitably dodged.

"If CorSec wanted it back," he declared, "they should have gotten it _before_ failing to kill me. And when your job is raiding criminal hideouts, your armor _better_ be tougher than a few pistols or knives."

"...and they needed you to extract a _village_?" Laani asked skeptically.

"That's what they said. But for how small the village was, there was a _lot_ of cargo being loaded and the walkers were overkill. Maybe Sareena knows what the operation was a cover for, there _have_ to be professional snipers they can tap before calling her in for a marksman role."

Wait, what? "Walkers?" Beril repeated. " _Sareena_? You didn't tell me _either_ of those were there!"

Rian scoffed. "You never _asked_. Sareena was already there, which I assume is why I was assigned in particular; and we took down their command speeder elsewhere to draw off the AT-STs, we never actually _fought_ them."

"So why didn't you _ask_ her? I wanna know now!"

"Sareena wouldn't tell me while it was going on, it didn't matter after I left even if she would tell me _then_ , and now that you _know_ about it you're going to try slicing it out when we get back to Alderaan _anyway_ so what difference does it make?"

"Am not!" There weren't going to be actual records on a connected system if there was a _cover_ story in place throughout. She'd have to do an actual investigation, and that sounded like _work_.

" _Good_. You exercising self-restraint would be **refreshing**."

" **Guys,** " Laani said loudly. "This is turning into _kind_ of an awkward dialog to be overhearing, so how about we talk about something less...personal? Like how we're going to find our Pantoran hostage at the pirate base."

Complete distraction...perfect. "Weren't you with the Navy when they did this kind of thing?" Beril asked.

"As I'm sure you can imagine, the Navy was into orbiting fleets. And fleets that dropped off the infantry and vehicles which _actually_ did the ground operations. This isn't quite the same thing."

"I guess not," Beril said. "Well, assuming one of those nature planets with a single hidden base... _My_ preference would be to descend into the atmosphere well away from their base powered down, and once we're in the air we go live and approach the base low to the ground. Depending on the geography we could land within walking distance without them ever having a chance to detect us with scanners. Standard scout-and-infiltrate from there."

"Assuming he's still there," Rian added pointedly.

"Not really," Beril countered. "If he's there, we get him out. If not, we find our next lead. We have to check the place out regardless, it's just different sorts of hassles after that."

"What worries me," Laani said, "is what happened to everyone else. He was a passenger, and we haven't even heard if there were any other passengers, much less what happened to the _crew_."

"We'll see when we _get_ there," Rian responded.

"True, I suppose."

A chime, indicating an incoming transmission, cut the conversation short before Beril could come up with a response. "I'm back," came Sareena's voice over the speaker on the nearby terminal, "open the cargo door."

Beril slowly walked over to the terminal, lost in thought. Once in front of it she sighed, disappointed that she couldn't come up with some new way to tease Sareena on short notice, before hitting the button to respond. "Got it, opening," she said as she entered the command for the cargo bay door to open and the ramp to extend.

As the door slowly opened, she chose to offset her failure of imagination by imagining a fanfare playing in the background, trumpets signaling the arrival of someone distantly related to some important dignitary who happened to be her boss. Sareena's disgust at the mocking extravagance would be _hilarious_.

"What did you _do_?" Sareena asked with a suspicious eyebrow creased.

Apparently she'd imagined Sareena boarding _while_ Sareena was boarding, and the smile she imagined on her own face was _actually_ on her face. "Nothing!" she answered too quickly and too playfully to be believable.

Sareena's eyes moved a little to the side, glancing over where Rian and Laani were. " _Anyway,_ " Sareena continued as she rolled her eyes in annoyance, "We've got a location. Close the door, and get ready to take off."

* * *

As Sareena watched the blue mottling of hyperspace out the cockpit window from the command seat, the view shifted to a burst of streaking lines, which soon resolved themselves into individual stars.

"And here we are," Beril announced from the pilot seat, "back in realspace."

"Comm channels are clear," Ahsoka said from a terminal to Sareena's left, "and that looks like the planet your contact described: Stormy, mostly ocean, irregular rocky islands dotted with jungle. No ships showing up on passive scans."

Only passive scans? "I take it you're not actively scanning?" Sareena asked.

"No," Ahsoka answered. "Odds are very good that the pirates will detect an active scan, and without anything worth scanning for—"

"They'll think we're onto them and be on their guard," Sareena concluded.

"No sense _broadcasting_ that we're onto them," Rian agreed from a seat to Sareena's right.

Sareena took a deep breath. "I was ready to try fast talking a ship into letting us land. Since there's not one here...Beril, what's your recommendation?"

Beril sighed. "Since _you_ didn't manage to get coordinates for the _precise_ location, _I'll_ have to determine exactly where we're supposed to sneak up on. And since it turns out the storms are intense enough to block our passive scans, I'll need to _write_ a program to piece together passive scan data from the clear portions of the atmosphere, until we have something resembling the island the base is on. That'll take _days_ if the weather isn't cooperative, and odds are they'll have 'guest' ships spotting us if we're here that long. So we'll **have** to do active scans to have any real chance of success, unless _Laani_ has some brilliant idea."

"Sort of," Ahsoka said. "Act like we're doing some basic planet assessment. Go into orbit, send generic 'anyone there' comms, do active scans of the surface, and head off to one of the life-hostile planets in the system."

"And then we slingshot around it," Beril added to the proposal, "approach this planet unpowered, and head toward the base in-atmosphere. They'll think we left the system, the fools."

"Getting ahead of yourself, aren't you?" Rian asked patronizingly.

Beril shook her head with an exaggerated neck motion, which Sareena could only tell by the jet black hair peeking out the sides of the pilot seat. "Big deal, it sure beats sitting around in space long enough for our unwitting pirates to become suspicious pirates...like could happen any moment now. Setting course."

No sense waiting around, then. "Go for it," Sareena said.

"Since we headed straight here," Rian said as the ship's forward motion began, "can you explain _why_ we have a hassle instead of actual coordinates _now_?"

Sareena mentally pieced all the information together. "The resistance isn't actually supposed to _know_ there's a base here. The base is built in a cavern system inside a mountain, with the hangar situated behind a natural cave opening, and with all the rock in the way it doesn't output enough power to show up on ships' sensors during normal operations. They only found it existed because one of their freighters was trading supplies with another freighter out here, and spotted a starfighter-sized vehicle disappearing into a mountain without leaving a crash site."

"And since they _lazily_ assumed there was nothing of interest on the planet," Beril continued with annoyance, "they didn't go to the _negligible_ effort of establishing a navigational frame of reference for it."

"Whatever the reason," Sareena jumped in before Beril went on a tirade, "the guess of the base's location with respect to the planet only narrowed it down to about an _eighth_ of the entire surface, so the scanner image of the island it's on is the best reference we have."

"At least we know it's on the half of the planet we're _facing_ right now," Ahsoka added.

A rapid beeping filled the cockpit for a moment. "Speaking of guest ships," Beril said, "one just jumped out of hyperspace behind us. Looks like a Gozanti freighter, the _Tranquil Star_ , heading towards the same planet we are."

"Imperial?" Sareena asked with some concern.

"Nah, this is the classic pre-Clone-Wars model. Severe hassle if you're trying to capture it, but doesn't have the speed to chase anything down."

"Wait," Ahsoka said to no one in particular, "' _Tranquil Star_ '? That sounds familiar..."

"No sense being bashful _now_ ," Sareena said. "Beril, see if their comms are open. And be ready to outrun it all the way into the atmosphere, just in case."

"Got it," Beril replied.

"Umm..." Ahsoka said uncertainly. "It's familiar because that was one of the ships docked back at the asteroid. Transponder codes match."

Beril quickly peeked her head out from her seat. "Back like when we were tracking down the engine?"

"Back like _just now_ ," Ahsoka responded.

" _That's_ not suspicious at _all_ ," Rian's sarcasm contributed.

Sareena took a deep breath. This wasn't the time to panic.

Beril withdrew into her seat again. "No standard channels are open," she declared. "Want me to try... _other_ channels?"

Ahsoka slowly rose out of her seat. She was looking forward, but Sareena noticed the eye looking straight at her. Sareena turned her head slightly towards Ahsoka, and in response Ahsoka crossed her arms. The motion was deliberate, except for when she practically slapped one of the platinum bracers on her forearms.

The bracers she kept her lightsaber in.

Sareena turned her head farther. _On that ship?_ she silently mouthed. Ahsoka gently nodded in the affirmative.

OK, this _still_ wasn't the time to panic, but that he'd somehow _followed_ them here would at least make panic _understandable_.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Sareena declared. "Laani, head back to the engine room in case there's fireworks we need put out. Beril, get us some more distance from our visitor."

"No," Beril countered coldly as Ahsoka wordlessly walked out of the cockpit.

Sareena blinked. It was so rare for Beril to take things seriously that it always came as a surprise. "Why not?"

"We're already gaining distance, they're holding speed, and they've got no chance of hitting us once when we get in the atmosphere. I'm not rushing a shootout in their favor."

"They're holding while we're gaining? Must be counting on something at the other end."

"I'm sure it's a trap, but that doesn't change our options. Rian, I have the shields ready, push the button when the fireworks start."

"Acknowledged," Rian said as he faced the terminal at his seat.

"I'm in position," came Ahsoka's voice over the ship's comm.

Everything was primed. "All that's left now, is to wait for the trigger." Sareena announced.

For a few seconds, the only sounds Sareena heard were the air softly whistling through the ship's air circulation system, the gentle rumble of the sublight engines, and the firm pace of her own heart. She had no idea how the Inquisitor could have known they were here, much less how he could have followed them; but it seemed clear he didn't come this far to be _reasoned_ with.

"And there it is," Beril said, "starfighters launching from the planet. Showtime."

There wasn't time to even wonder what that entailed. Sareena was pushed backwards against her seat as the ship's inertial dampers struggled to counteract the sharp acceleration, and the slowly growing image of the planet out the window expanded with alarming speed. Laser fire screamed from behind, but no shots connected.

It didn't take long for shots from the front to commence, as the fighters realized they were being rushed by a ship they couldn't know was unarmed. In the small fraction of a second Sareena could clearly see the fighters before Beril charged through the middle of their formation, she noted their main feature was a long beige rectangle, and not the twin gray hexagons of TIE fighters.

There was a brief pause in the sounds of blaster fire, as the view out the window made the subtle transition from direct to ambient lighting as they entered the atmosphere; but sparse firing resumed amid the roar of the ship's engines, presumably from a couple fighters intent on pursuing them.

As the view leveled off from a straight dive, revealing a rainy gray sky and a cluster of colossal trees rising out of an island ahead, Sareena found her anxiety had become palpable. The artificial gravity had been specially enhanced precisely _because_ Beril could operate at this speed, but the negligible shift in momentum meant Sareena's only physical indication of their direction was out the window...and the motion blur on the ocean below meant they were moving faster than she'd _ever_ be comfortable with. It didn't help that the firing sounds were her only clue of pursuers. Next time she ran a mission, she was going to insist that readouts be available directly from the commander's chair.

It didn't take long to realize they were headed directly _towards_ one of those gigantic trees. "Are you _really_ —"

" _Busy,_ " Beril cut her off with a detached, but loud, tone.

As if on cue, the room shook violently with a soft boom, and the ship briefly lurched to the right.

"That was one of the port engines," came Ahsoka's level voice over the ship's comm. "I've compensated for now, but we better land _soon_."

"Got it," Beril responded. Sareena hadn't even noticed a reduction in speed...which spoke of both Ahsoka's skill and Beril's recklessness.

With a sharp counterclockwise motion that Sareena could almost feel, the view out front turned on its side, as the ship deftly flew just past the trunk of one gigantic tree, and narrowly avoiding another. Trees that until that moment, Sareena was unaware were many times larger than their ship. A series of explosions rang out behind them.

Followed by one to her left, violently shaking the entire ship around them.

"...and that was the _other_ port engine," Ahsoka calmly reported. "Nice work splashing the patrol, but now we're landing soon whether we like it or not. Probably _not_."

"Options!" Sareena demanded, hoping the terror she was feeling didn't show.

"We crash," Ahsoka replied evenly, "or we crash with style."

"Style," Beril declared coldly.

With nothing she could do, Sareena clenched her mouth shut and watched the view ahead. Now that they were past the trees, it looked like the ship was racing parallel to the edge of a cliff, and slowly losing altitude and speed. The angle was wobbling unsteadily, but Sareena eventually recognized it as Beril manipulating the aerodynamics to eke out as much distance as possible. _There_ was a trick the typical space pilot wouldn't know how to pull off.

The ship started veering to the right towards a beach near the face of a cliff, though Sareena couldn't see why. Judging from the placement of the wide-mouthed cave, there was no way the beach was long enough for them to—

Cave?

 _She wouldn't...what am I thinking, of_ _ **course**_ _she would._

As the interior of the cave was lit by the activation of the ship's forward lights, Sareena gave up, closing her eyes and hoping Beril _actually_ knew what she was doing.

It was only a second before the ship made contact, grinding and scraping and dragging and jumping against the ground. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity in an earthquake, the motions and sounds finally stopped.

Sareena consciously controlled her breathing to avoid hyperventilating, as she assessed her surroundings. Shattered screens, loose panels and emergency lighting aside; the cockpit seemed intact. Rian was undoing his seat restraints, the exterior lights still functioned, and the view out the window showed that they had stopped short of actually colliding head-on with the rock wall of the cave.

" **Status report**!" Sareena yelled once she had enough breath.

"Ready for duty," Rian reported. He looked disoriented, but that was to be expected.

"No harm done," Ahsoka said...causing Sareena to turn her head to verify that she had entered the cockpit. She didn't even look perturbed by the ordeal.

A snort issued from the pilot's seat. " _I_...am... _ **awesome!**_ " Beril declared in her usual energetic voice, which probably qualified as psychotic in this scenario.

"She _has_ made worse landings," Rian admitted as Sareena undid her own seat restraints and went to check Beril's physical status.

"I give you a nine for the dive," Ahsoka said, "but a two for the landing."

" _Whatever_!" Beril protested.

Sareena sighed, trying to keep the situation in perspective. "As pleased as I am that we're all in good spirits, we don't have time to waste. Beril, you alright?"

"You mean besides my piloting being—"

" _ **Beril!**_ "

" _Yes_ , I'm _fine_ , sheesh!"

Apparently _she_ was the only one still soaked in stress. "Sorry. Beril and Laani, you two triage the ship, see exactly what we have to work with. Rian and I will secure the perimeter in case someone _else_ followed us _here_."

As fragments of ideas whirled through her mind, Sareena found one thought foremost past the immediate concerns: They were down half their engines _before_ they hit the ground. If the ship couldn't be made spaceworthy, or at least airworthy, calling the crash a "complication" would be a ludicrous understatement.


	7. Chapter 7

"Secure the perimeter" had amounted to Rian making a sweep to confirm that the rough stone floor around the ship was as empty as it was _before_ Beril covered it with gouges and rock particles, while Sareena tensely kept a sniper rifle aimed at the sunlight filtering through the cave opening a ways off. Just the way he liked it; standing guard was _boring_. The ion dispersion rifle he wielded, his weapon of choice, worked best when striking first anyway.

As Beril and Laani came out to report the results of their job of measuring the damage, Sareena slowly turned to face them, an irritated look on her face. Rian understood her fuming, of course: it was the helplessness. He made his living out of breaking down doors with guns blazing, and a big part of it was choosing _when_ to break down doors and _how_ to blaze with guns. When your life is in someone _else's_ hands, you just have to hope they're better at it than you are, or at least that they won't screw up while your life is on the line.

He was certain Sareena _knew_ that the situation was far better than the alternatives that involved them dying; but her _instinct_ still said Beril was responsible for the current ordeal on its own merits. As did his, but he'd learned that people trained for more _peaceful_ occupations have a more difficult time keeping their instincts from interfering with their logic. And Laani spent three years aboard Republic warships, she _had_ to have come to grips with the fact that one general making a mistake could cost her life, as easily as one of her own could.

The normally overeager Beril noticed Sareena's expression; Laani wouldn't have the chance to start speaking first otherwise. "The bad news is that both the port engines are fried. Most of the damaged components are too far gone to be repaired, and there's too much damage in common to cannibalize one to fix the other. I could tear apart one of the _starboard_ engines for the parts to get us nominal propulsion, but we'd still be down two engines and it's the speed we _really_ need."

"By the way," Beril commented, "neat trick with the thrusters back there."

"Thanks; but unfortunately it'll only keep us from flying in circles at _lower_ speeds, it's nowhere near enough to get out of the planet's gravity well. And jumping into hyperspace is our only real option if we're leaving with the ship's own power, we're not going to be able to take off unnoticed with that Gozanti out there, so landing again is out of the question."

Sareena sighed in frustration. "Are we _sure_ it's still up there waiting for us? I don't think _anyone's_ going to expect we lived through _this_ landing."

Beril snarled. "Are you _mad_ that my sheer talent got us _out_ of a trap that your resistance buddies got us _into_?"

Rian shook his head gently. He wasn't going to walk into the middle of _that_.

Fortunately Laani interjected, so he didn't need to. "It's a completely standard Gozanti configuration, including the proton torpedo launcher. _One_ torpedo could take out half our systems, and possibly even cripple or destroy us outright with a lucky hit, if it'd bothered to launch any." She crossed her arms before continuing. "Between that and how far it followed us, do _you_ think it'll give up before finding out what happened to us?"

Sareena took a deep breath. It was something Rian had noticed: She frequently sighed, or took a deep breath, or otherwise made some sort of vocal noise before responding...as if she was trying to prevent the first words that came to mind from coming out of her mouth. "I suppose not. Now, I didn't get a good look at the fighters on the way down, but those _were_ CloakShapes, right?"

"Yep," Beril confirmed. "With upgraded engines to keep up with us, obviously."

"Well yeah," Sareena agreed, "CloakShapes are cheap and easy to customize, there's no other reason to have one. Still, they perform quite well in atmospheres, so if they can follow us _into_ the atmosphere they wouldn't have a problem following us _in_ the atmosphere...OK, any brilliant ideas on how we _can_ get off this planet in one piece?"

"The obvious approach," Rian said, "is a pirate ship."

"Yeah," Laani agreed, "pirates aren't normally self-sustaining, because _piracy_...And even if for some strange reason this base _is_ , it'd have to be able to support pirate ships in orbit, because _piracy_ still. We'd have to get _to_ the base though, which might be a problem; CloakShapes are single-seaters like _most_ fighters, and it's not like we can walk from island to island."

"Actually..." Beril cut in, sounding slightly embarrassed.

Rian fixed a hard stare on her face. "You landed us on the same landmass as the base and didn't _tell_ anyone, **didn't you** _?_ " he accused.

"Well someone was supposed to figure out a plan that _didn't_ involve hiking through forsaken wilderness for hours first!"

" _Seriously?_ " Laani demanded.

" **Look** : We entered the atmosphere, we traveled close to the ground, we're technically in walking distance of the base, and now we're powered down...somewhat permanently. Other than the order of operations it's exactly like I said we'd do, _what more do you want?_ "

"Telling us sooner so we don't waste time," Laani countered flatly. "If we're close to the base, any reserve fighters or even _speeders_ they have at the base could be out there searching for us, they could find us _that_ much sooner. We've got a workable objective, but we need a relocation plan for it _now_."

Mission planning, Rian had a little experience with. "We'd have to do our own recon on foot _anyway_ , so the only difference is making the extended trip." It was quite an improvement over hoping they could commandeer four fighters intact. "Still have your wilderness survival gear on board?" he asked Sareena.

"Of course," she replied, "so we should be okay if mundane natural threats come up. That still leaves the pirates, though."

"Beril," Laani asked, "there weren't _any_ traces of installations on the surface, were there?"

"Unless you consider that fighters have to come from _somewhere_ , no. As far as our scanners could tell there's just a ton of rocks, plants and water."

"That means no scanning installations on the surface," Laani mused. "OK, we should have enough parts in our miscellaneous supplies to throw together an infrared jammer to take with us."

Beril shot a disbelieving look at Laani, before Rian had to guess what Laani had in mind. "Isn't creating a thermal anomaly going to _pinpoint_ us?"

"That all depends on the range," Laani countered. "With all the moisture in the atmosphere for there to be so much rain, and the shade from the giant trees, and the heat reflection potential of the exposed rock? There's plenty of environmental diffusion there, a jammer'll do just fine to mask heat signatures."

"Ah," Beril said, "you're hiding us from the Gozanti's lifeform scans, which could spot us _anywhere_ on the island's surface from orbit."

"Exactly. And with no ground installations, there's nothing with enough sensitivity to identify jamming at the ranges we're talking about. Fighters or speeders would detect the anomaly if they got close, but I understand Rian has a solution for _that_."

" _Oh yeah,_ " Rian confirmed with enthusiasm, as he hefted his ion dispersion rifle for emphasis.

"Just one problem," Beril said. "The base we're headed for is where any search operation is going to be run from. As long as they're looking for us, there's going to be a _lot_ of traffic getting close to us."

"Good point," Sareena said as she placed a hand to her chin. "It's going to be especially difficult if it turns out the launch area is the only entrance."

"Rian," Laani said, "your powered armor. It doesn't _require_ an active onboard reactor, does it?"

"Doesn't have one," he said, "the energy core charges externally and stores power for up to twelve hours of operation. It doesn't have a reactor energy signature to be detected, by design."

"Good. The best way to get them to stop searching is to convince them there's no longer anything to find. Overloading the ship's reactors would do a fine job of vaporizing any organic material aboard and drawing their attention."

"So they couldn't know _we_ weren't there to find," Rian concluded. "But does mean we'll have to carry, or equip, anything we want to keep."

" _What?!_ " Beril complained. "I go to all the trouble of saving the ship, and _now_ you want to blow it up?!"

"It does sound rather drastic," Sareena agreed.

Laani rolled her eyes. "I'm not exactly _thrilled_ with the idea, but it beats waiting around to see when they find us. Besides, _we_ survived the landing, and that's the important part; one light freighter is a small price to pay for our safety. If we knew where else these caves open to the surface that'd be one thing, but we don't even know _if_ there's another opening. And we sure don't have time to look."

Sareena let out a long sigh. "You're right. I just hope blowing up the only escape option we already have is a good idea."

"It's _not_ an escape option," Rian declared, "that's the _point_. Buying time for us to find an _actual_ escape is all it's good for _now_." Speaking of actual escapes..."Beril, how far away _are_ we from the base?"

"Few kilometers," she answered listlessly.

"We'd better hurry then," Laani said. "If we get delayed and this turns into an overnight hike, we're in _big_ trouble."

"You ladies and Beril go and load up," Rian said, "I'll keep watch here."

" _Excuse me_?" Beril protested, too indignantly to be a genuine reaction, as Sareena walked back towards the ship. Not that he'd have said it if he was serious.

"You **know** you'd just ask what I wanted _you_ to do too," he countered patronizingly.

" _Not the point!_ "

Laani sighed. "Seriously, go grab what you can already. Do you _really_ want to be hanging around while I'm rigging the timer for the reactor?"

Rian caught the glimpse of fear in Beril's eyes before she turned and ran after Sareena. "Hey," she called out in jest, "I thought the captain went down with the ship?"

"It looks pretty down to _me_ ," Sareena answered flatly.

" _Whatever!_ "

Laani slowly shook her head. "I _really_ hope she was exaggerating about hating wilderness," she commented.

"She isn't going to let the air kill her, if that's what you're worried about," he said. "Same way Sareena isn't going to let the price tag on the ship kill anyone else."

Laani paused for a second. "So noted. Doesn't powered armor take a little while to start up, though?"

"Couple minutes," Rian answered, keeping his eyes peeled for possible attackers from the direction of the cave opening. "I'll head in when Sareena's out here to cover. Don't you have a jammer to jury-rig?"

"And a reactor to push near overload and a timer to actually start the overloading. Figured I'd give Beril a headstart before the reactor warnings started."

* * *

Even though Ahsoka had set the timer for the reactor herself, she still flinched at the cacophony of the ship's reactor exploding, over half a kilometer behind the four of them. It was at _least_ an order of magnitude louder than the sporadic thunderclaps that had played all around in the storm clouds overhead, above the towering trees.

It took a couple seconds for the sounds of the explosion to subside enough for the precipitation to be heard again. The downpour didn't actually reach the level of "torrential" itself, in Ahsoka's opinion...but the jungle floor showed the occasional fallen leaf amidst the myriad vibrant bushes, vines, and other flora shielded from the direct impact of the rain; and those giant leaves were wider than she was tall, horns included. Wherever the rain managed to break through to the surface, it formed _sheets_ of water, spraying droplets in every direction as it crashed into the ground from great heights.

She took a deep breath, something she was aware Beril was strenuously trying to avoid. Master Kenobi had told her once that the Force was strong in places such as this, and sure enough she could feel the intensity of its presence. He also told her that these times were when _his_ master would remind him to be mindful of the here and now, to beware of anxieties of the future clouding his judgment. It was one of the few times he'd mentioned Master Jinn: _"Impulsive, headstrong, empathetic...you'd have liked him."_

"You're not _proud_ of that terror you jury-rigged, are you?" Beril asked accusingly from behind.

She supposed getting stuck on the past wasn't being mindful of the here and now, either. "It blowing up when _planned_ was nice," she responded evenly. Ahsoka had no doubt in her own _abilities_ , of course, but there was a slight possibility that they'd all find out the hard way if the _reactor's_ integrity had been compromised in the crash landing.

"I guess," Beril said with a sad reluctance.

Ahsoka, surprised at the absence of a comment about losing the ship, looked behind her. Beril dragging a damp sleeve against the creases that might as well have been sculpted on her forehead told most of the story. Her uncovered hair was slick with rainwater and almost shapeless, losing the distinction between the individual strands that she worked to maintain, and the occasional droplet ran down her hair to fall on her face. Clearly Beril's upbringing on Nar Shaddaa left her ill-prepared to deal with precipitation of this magnitude.

Not that Ahsoka didn't understand that the circumstances were extraordinary. Walking through the sheets of water on the edges of this tree cluster had almost been nauseating, as the impact of the water rattling her horns was enough to make her echolocation go haywire. If she was able to survive _in_ the reactor when it exploded, the boom reverberating from every direction would probably have the same effect. But none of them could _afford_ for her to cut off one of her senses, so she would endure.

"You going to make it?" Ahsoka asked casually to preempt the silence.

Beril rolled her eyes instead of answering. "You going to tell me why you wanted _me_ to haul _your_ ugly contraption around?" she countered, indicated the thermal jamming device in her hand. Which _did_ , admittedly, look like someone had shoved one of those tiny Separatist recon droids through an oblong datapad.

Ahsoka sighed. "Someone needs to keep an eye on it, and I guessed this would get you out of hauling heavy supplies through the mud. Come on, we've got to keep up."

Even with all the rain splatters in the way, Ahsoka had an easy time seeing where Sareena and Rian were. Especially Rian, since the dusty blue color of his bulky armor didn't blend with the flora in color _or_ shape. Plus, their "leapfrog" tactic of Sareena covering Rian's advancement with her sniper rifle, before Sareena caught up with Rian for them to start over, meant they made alternating bursts of quick motion that would be hard to miss.

"You know," Beril said while the two of them were hastily pushing forward and avoiding mud where they could, "since I already saved our lives, since you kind of _need_ me now, and since I _already_ feel like a wet rat...How am I supposed to trust you?"

"What, the jammer? Rian's armor will run out of power before the jammer burns out, and that's _far_ more than enough time to—"

"No, _you_. You can do all this stuff, and all I hear is that you were in the Republic Navy...as if that explains _anything_ about you! The fighting, the haggling, how you keep talking with Sareena _alone_...You're _both_ hiding something from me. Something about _you_."

Ahsoka pursed her lips. So Sareena and Rian were right: her actions had drawn the very attention she'd been hoping to avoid. She hadn't _really_ considered the possibility before, she had just kind of assumed she'd avoid it. What else was she unconsciously taking for granted, right now? Her ingenuity? Her talent? Her resolve?

Her integrity?

Her self?

"I left the Navy," Ahsoka said, "before the Clone Wars ended. I told you I'd heard of Ahsoka Tano...you could say I followed her career. And her trial was the trigger. I was with the Navy to do good in the galaxy, as she was with the Jedi. But then-Chancellor Palpatine was so intent on ignoring everything she'd done for the Republic she and I served, all to look like he was decisive. And of course, he was the one ultimately in command of the Navy. After her mentor in the Jedi managed to save her by finding the truth, I...realized there was going to be no one there to save _me_. The Republic was infected, and the person in charge of it had just proven his willingness to support executions on the _illusion_ of sedition.

"So. I'm a deserter. I picked up a lot of stuff learning how to survive on my own, which ended up being _really_ useful when the Empire came around a few months later. And that's why I'm here now, to fight the Empire that crushed or corrupted _everything_ I had in life." Ahsoka sniffed and blinked away the tears that were forming, or at least spread them around her eyes enough that they could blend with condensation. "It's not something I like to spread around."

Beril was only silent for a second. "That...doesn't _really_ explain anything."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes, despite knowing Beril was behind her. That was all true, even if only technically so in a couple places; if that wasn't enough for Beril's curiosity, too bad. She could at least bring something herself..."Are you going to tell me what made you leave Nar Shaddaa behind? It sounds like your kind of place, and I think you miss it."

"...No," she answered flatly, "I'm not going to tell you that."

"Well then," Ahsoka proclaimed curtly. "I trust you not to do anything that would needlessly endanger me, despite knowing hardly _anything_ about _you_ ; and I expect you to do the same."

"Fine," Beril answered in the same curt tone. "Can you really see them through all this crap?"

The view ahead was dominated by an erratic spray of water droplets from multiple directions, but Ahsoka's mind obediently composited the constantly moving scene into a sensible image. The blue color of Rian's armor off in the distance stood out against the massive tree behind him...and his posture, facing their general direction with his arms crossed, was unmistakable.

"Yeah, they're waiting for us to catch up. Come on."

Beril sighed. "I can't wait to get inside... _anywhere_ , really."

"The precipitation's beyond ridiculous, but it's a nice change of pace from being stuck in a ship." Ludicrous or not, Ahsoka was actually enjoying all the downpour. Not so much for its own sake, but because it was a sharp contrast to the environment of Wasskah which had giant trees of its own. She supposed she _should_ be encouraged by memories of first handling herself independently of Anakin; but the memory of how it felt to be hunted for sport by Trandoshans, with three Jedi Initiates in tow, was something she preferred to avoid at the moment.

They hadn't been able to escape on their _own_ , after all, and one of them didn't survive the ordeal. And there _was_ a Trandoshan hunting them, for sport or otherwise; she could still feel the Inquisitor's presence faintly, enough to know he was lingering in orbit. Whether he was going to _stay_ in orbit or check out ground zero personally was still unclear so soon after the explosion, but either way was safer for her companions. Safer for him to be out of her reach, too, so it was really a good thing for everyone. Except for the pirates who were going to be down a few ships, maybe.

"That wasn't why you _killed_ it, was it?" Beril asked jokingly.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes as they continued on. Beril was certainly taking the ship's destruction personally..."No. But since you mention it...what do _you_ think was going on up there? If the _Gozanti_ was trying to kill us it'd have used its proton torpedoes, and if it was trying _not_ to kill us it wouldn't have used its lasers either."

"Clearly they saw an advantage to not vaporizing us. Salvage value maybe. Maybe the attack was worked out in advance, the base _did_ know we were coming."

"What? _How_?"

"Someone tipped them off, obviously. But I've never seen an installation launch starfighters so quickly _without_ being on high alert already. So it's not a coincidence we were followed by a ship _this_ far along the Outer Rim."

The launch timing hadn't seemed unusually prepared to Ahsoka, though she eventually realized all her experience was from being stationed on warships in the middle of a _war;_ the Navy couldn't afford to stray far from high alert, any more than she imagined pirates could be able to _maintain_ high alert without morale and fatigue becoming problems. So if Beril was right, that meant the Inquisitor and the pirates were working together. Which would be strange, the Empire naturally opposed piracy and pirates typically were distrusting sorts.

Of course, Beril didn't actually _know_ the Inquisitor was aboard the freighter. "So who do you think followed us, and how did they know _to_ follow us?"

"Well...I doubt it was the guy Miss Organa was coaxing information out of. He was definitely a fixer, and the middleman doesn't get into the thick of things. His contact that I eavesdropped on, maybe, but Sareena said we'd be back in a week; and even if she hadn't why would he head out here so soon? I think it was that lightsaber maniac. I thought it was my imagination at the time, but I think he looked directly _at_ me on his way out. He could have been following us already."

Ahsoka took a deep breath of moist air as she walked around a beige stone only slightly higher than her knee, but still tall enough that Beril might have had to climb it. That made sense; while they'd been theorizing that the Empire was tracking her down on the entirely correct assumption she was Ahsoka, all _four_ of them had been there at that poor excuse for an ambush after they acquired the _Sparrow's_ engine. The Empire could very well be following her indirectly by following _them_. And if they wanted to be _sure_ she was Ahsoka before making their move, waiting for the ship to be isolated from civilization would eliminate opportunities for escape. Something of the sort could be what happened with the _Silver Sparrow_ itself, in fact.

"The _real_ question," Beril continued, "is why pirates are working with an Imperial agent in the first place. The options are obvious: The Empire made them an offer they couldn't refuse, the Inquisitor is in business for himself here, or the piracy is just a front for a covert Imperial group. But the implications vary _wildly_."

"While true," Ahsoka responded, "none of those cases are going to make anyone eager to call for reinforcements; exposing a side business _to_ the Empire or secret operation _of_ the Empire is suicidal, and pirates aren't going to be _more_ cooperative if an Imperial fleet that can wipe them out comes along. We might get out of here without any more complications."

"Yeah _that's_ gonna happen," Beril countered sarcastically.

A low-pitched, slightly electronic groan came from ahead. "Some time today would be nice," Rian said condescendingly, his voice distorted by speakers Ahsoka assumed were integrated with his powered armor.

Beril scoffed. " _Some_ of us don't have mobility-assisting environmentally-sealed exoskeletons, you know!" she said loudly.

"And some of us don't take leisurely _strolls_ through jungles, so what's your point?"

"Yeah, yeah," Ahsoka cut in dismissively before the pointless argument had a chance to take hold. "You waiting around by a tree for a particular _reason_ , or...?"

"It's the last tree before charging through direct exposure towards the _next_ jungle cluster. Bad time to start separated."

Now that they'd all caught up, Ahsoka could finally spot Sareena crouched behind a pair of rocks, holding her sniper rifle vertically with one hand and looking off in the distance with the pair of electrobinoculars in the other. "Can you even _see_ anything with those?"

"Well," Sareena answered, "nothing resembling viable imagery; but there's a slightly darker area ahead where our next waypoint is supposed to be, so our nav data is still good. Probably. No trace of power signatures either. Beril, you haven't picked up any nearby comms, have you?"

"Nope," Beril responded. Ahsoka hadn't even noticed any monitoring equipment that Beril _had_ to be wearing; clearly she was far more experienced with clandestine operations than with precipitation. "If anyone saw what you guys did to our ship, they aren't talking yet."

"Time to move then," Rian declared as he unfolded his arms, returning the ion weapon leaning against his shoulder to his hands.

"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed, "the sooner we get this over with the better."

Maybe using her arm to diffuse the sheet of water at the edge would prevent the stomach discomfort _this_ time...

* * *

"No power signatures," Sareena declared from inside the mouth of the newly discovered cave.

They'd headed here because the cluster of giant trees was the driest spot close to the mountain, and the pirate base inside it. It wasn't until they arrived that they discovered the tunnel and the volume of water it was dumping out, which was probably why the area was so fertile. A quick chemical analysis had revealed the presence of repulsorlift fluid in the water, meaning this was runoff from the pirates' hangar; so there had to be an opening into the base _somewhere_...with any luck, one that was big enough for them to fit through; charging through the actual hangar opening was all but guaranteed to result in a shootout, so it wouldn't take much for this to be a superior option.

And Sareena was tired of Beril complaining about the rain, anyway.

The ambient sounds of rainfall took on a metallic ring for a moment, as Rian stepped through the mouth of the cave and the downfall there sprayed meaninglessly on his armor. "This tunnel opening is straight and narrow," he noted to the other three of them. "It'd be a great spot for intrusion detection," he added suspiciously.

"Right," Sareena agreed, "assuming the pirates know this tunnel is _here_. We only saw it ourselves when we were close by, after all."

"There could be more _active_ countermeasures, though," Beril said. "You sure the runoff isn't toxic?"

"Those trees out there are doing quite well," Ahsoka said. "They wouldn't look so healthy if there was anything in the water strong enough to kill us...though I wouldn't recommend taking a drink."

"Ew," Beril responded with disgust.

"In any case," Sareena declared, "we need to keep moving. Time for nightvision, people."

It might have been overly cautious, but a light source could easily be detected without electronic equipment, and if there _was_ a connection into the base they certainly didn't want someone seeing them coming. To say nothing of the possibility of indigenous lifeforms...they hadn't detected _any_ fauna thus far, of course, but on the other hand it'd be completely typical for animals to use caves as shelter.

They proceeded carefully down the tunnel. Or at least three of them did: Ahsoka strode down the center of the tunnel, confidently stepping on the foot-sized rocks in the stream; while Beril, Rian and Sareena cautiously walked down the damp stone ledge on the side. A task made more difficult by the green tinting of their IR goggles, or vision mode in the case of Rian's helmet, as it obscured some of the fine detail that would reveal the full shape of the rock surface in normal lighting.

"How does she _do_ that?" Beril wondered.

"If you think runoff is bad," Ahsoka said, "try getting away from patrols through a _sewer_ sometime. Actually, _don't_ ; I wouldn't wish that on _anyone_. Unless it's some of that fake fresh air scent you like?"

"Ew! No, sewage is how _modern_ systems isolate _nature's_ garbage; it's civilization's _pus_."

Sareena stopped moving for a second, as she recalled a particularly nasty abscess she had to treat, and the sickly green pus she had to drain out of it herself..."Can we _not_?" she protested.

"Fine by me," Ahsoka muttered. "You should get up here and see this anyway," she added at normal volume.

The tunnel opened into a cavern. Sareena had seen much larger caves, most recently the one Beril crashed the ship into; but compared to the entry point's ledge only being wide enough to walk single file, and the visibility slaughtering rainfall they'd trudged through, this place _felt_ voluminous. It almost appeared comfortable aside from the green tint her goggles gave to everything, before she noticed the motion of water covering the center of the place, steadily flowing down towards the tunnel.

And flowing from the apparent end of a waterfall twenty meters away, which she guessed was what Ahsoka was drawing attention to.

"Water's shallow," Ahsoka said, "it just runs out the way we came in. And clearly it isn't falling _directly_ from the hangar, or I couldn't hear myself without _screaming_."

Sareena looked to her right. The water didn't reach far away from the tunnel; the rest of the floor was damp but reasonably smooth, and wide enough that all _four_ of them could cross side-by-side. And it led right up to where the water flowed in; erosion must've created a depression that the water splashed into.

"Come on," she said as she walked to the waterfall. Time to find out if this was their way into the base. The water source being indirect was in some ways a good thing. She'd been hoping for a horizontal entry path higher up in the mountain; with as high above their altitude as the hangar was, a direct path would require an extremely high climb over water-drenched rock and create an incredibly effective zone for surveillance. She had no idea yet what the apparent series of small drops entailed, but it'd have to be quite bad to be riskier than _that_.

As they approached the waterfall, Sareena noticed another tunnel opening leading out of the cavern, a tunnel the waterfall itself had obscured until they were this close. If the waterfall didn't pan out, deeper spelunking was an option.

"No power signatures up there either," Beril offered, saving Sareena the trouble of checking herself.

With as much safety as Sareena could expect, she looked at the shaft. Water poured out from about ten meters above from a vaguely cylindrical gap in the rock, rising vertically but slightly angled; the combination of the goggles and the water output made it too hard to gauge the total height. They had scanning instruments that could measure it, but it wasn't pressing: She could see enough to tell that the opening for the waterfall was tall enough for even Rian to fit through, and the gap itself was about one-and-a-half times his heavily-armored width.

The shaft was flush with the rock wall of the cave they were standing in. The incline leading up to it looked _just_ gentle enough to be climbable without needing to break out specialized gear, and to get into the shaft laterally instead of climbing against the flow of the water. But even so, the path would need to be scouted before she could even _consider_ sending all of them up that way, so the next question was who to send.

Rian was a nonstarter, the size and weight of his armor alone could easily destroy the very surfaces the rest of them would need to follow. Beril was no stranger to maintenance conduits, but getting her to trudge through _natural_ tunnels seemed more like a joke than a plan. Sareena could do it herself; it didn't look _that_ different from the several mountainsides she'd scaled over the years.

And she would have done it, if she didn't have access to someone more versatile than herself. "Beril, you're not going to be offended if I send Laani to follow our waterfall to its source, are you?" If nothing else, getting away from everyone would let Ahsoka use her Jedi tricks unobserved; there was no way Sareena could compete with _those_.

"Not at all," Beril answered, "she can play in the water all you like."

"Thanks," Ahsoka commented dismissively.

"Oh wait," Beril added as she pulled a palm-sized device out from her...sleeve, Sareena had to guess. "Here, take this."

"Covert holocam?" Ahsoka asked as she set her backpack on the cave floor. Sareena had almost forgotten she was wearing it, there certainly wasn't any change in her nimble movement to even suggest she was carrying extra weight.

"Yep," Beril confirmed. "The rest of us will want to see what's up there for ourselves, you know."

A passive observation device that small likely couldn't _output_ enough power to be detected normally. "Good thinking," Sareena commented. "You've got ten minutes; if you're not back by then, I'm coming after you."

"Noted," Ahsoka responded with detachment, seemingly apathetic that her safety was being considered. Or perhaps, utterly unconvinced that she could be put in jeopardy in the first place.

Ahsoka walked next to the rock wall, and starting scaling it without a word. Sareena watched her ascent, on the extremely unlikely chance she'd fall and need someone to catch her; but Ahsoka showed that routine deftness of hers, firmly grasping hand-sized bulges in the rock and pulling herself up to them with little delay, as if she knew in advance they would securely support her weight...which Sareena reminded herself could be true.

"She's got very good arms," Rian commented once Ahsoka walked down the shaft, out of sight.

Beril scoffed. "We've known _that_ since the Gamorrean Rumble... _haven't_ we, Sareena?"

Sareena rolled her eyes, deriving a negligible sense of satisfaction from the goggles preventing anyone from noticing. "What's _that_ supposed to mean, Beril?"

"When were you going to tell us about Laani?"

"Tell you _what_ about her?"

"You can relax, she already told me _everything_."

Sareena paused for a split second. Beril was clearly trying to squeeze information out of her by pretending she already had it, with as hard as she was trying to sell it; but it was still annoying that Ahsoka had managed to keep Beril's attention for this long. "Really? What did she say?"

"You know," Beril answered after a short pause.

After a pause of her own, Sareena responded: "How am I supposed to know what she told you, much less whether they're the same things she told me?"

" _AHA_!" Beril exclaimed. "So she _is_ hiding something!"

Sareena shook her head. Beril was perfectly _capable_ of being subtle, but she clearly wasn't trying it _now_. "How could I know that without knowing if what she told you is the same thing she told me?"

"If you didn't think she was hiding something why would you even think what she told you isn't what she told me?" Beril countered, unflummoxed by the complicated construction of the sentence.

"You mean _besides_ the Empire-sized gap in all the records we could find?"

"Well...yeah, besides that!" she hurriedly responded.

Rian slowly shook his armored head. "Smooth," he commented sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Beril protested.

"No."

Sareena exhaled in annoyance. "Do you _honestly_ think we didn't check out every aspect of her story we possibly could before we'd even consider using her as a _contact_ , much less an _operative_? What kind of half-baked operations do you think we're _running_ here?" Conveniently, that was entirely true.

Rian answered before Beril could. "The kind that don't warn us about multi-million credit bounties?"

"Yeah!" Beril hurriedly added.

Rian's posture shifted slightly towards Beril; if Sareena's memory of his body language was right, he was looking at her disapprovingly from behind the helmet. "Don't try to upstage me," he said patronizingly, "you aren't fooling anyone."

"Am too!" Beril responded on instinct.

"Other than yourself."

" _Look,_ " Sareena interrupted, "we didn't hear about that one because Intel didn't think it was important, because it wasn't on Laani Sy. I informed them they're at risk for termination if they let another Togruta bounty slip past us."

Beril looked up, slightly. "What if _they_ knew Laani was that Ahsoka," she asked, "and were trying to get her killed?"

 _Now_ Beril was legitimately trying to eke her answer out. "Didn't we figure out the bounty was supposed to draw attention to a Jedi? That'd be pointless if they _already_ knew where she was."

"Well..." Beril said with a pause, "how do we know _only_ the Empire is after her?"

Sareena took a deep breath. She knew Beril well enough to know that if she was _actually_ that paranoid she wouldn't need to pause to express her concern; she was stalling in the hope of regaining her momentum. Something Sareena didn't think she needed. " _Seriously?_ " she said incredulously. "You're really positing that some other group has moles in our organization, _and_ has some way to know where Ahsoka is, and yet chooses to let a bounty warning slide instead of, let's say, _**tipping off the Empire so they can kill her for them**_?"

The sudden movement of Beril's neck showed that Sareena had successfully taken her off guard. "Well when you put it like that—"

"Give it a rest already," Rian said dismissively.

"No no," Sareena said with sarcastic enthusiasm as she turned her head to look directly at Beril, "I want to hear _who_ she has in mind."

For a couple seconds, the only sounds came from the waterfall.

"...crap," Beril finally said with mild dejection.

Sareena took another breath, reminding herself not to be smug. She couldn't very well tell Ahsoka to reign herself in and not do the same. The trick now was to sound like she was revealing something that 'Laani' couldn't deny if pressed, so Beril thought she 'won' something instead of continuing to look for a 'prize'. "Now on the _actual_ subject...Laani served aboard numerous vessels in the Republic Navy, and deserted some time near the end of the Clone Wars. The quality of the surviving Republic archives leaves a lot of ambiguity, but to the extent possible every deployment she mentioned to us occurred and the limited biometric data we got matches Laani's. And clearly she's capable of performing the job she says she was there to do. What more do you expect from _me?_ "

Before either of them could answer, motion from the shaft drew everyone's attention.

"Mixed news," Ahsoka said with minor strain as she descended down the rock wall. "This connects near the base, but it's no good as an entry point. It's covered with a steel grate."

"How do you know it connects near the base?" Rian asked.

"Let me show you," she answered as she reached the floor and walked towards the rest of them. "Thanks to Beril's little holocam..."

The little device projected a glowing three-dimensional image around the four of them; Sareena moved the eyepieces of her googles to just above her eyes to get a less green-tinted look. Most of it was simply rock and more rock. In one direction was a still frame of running water covering an angled rock floor, streaming in from a patch of gray sky apparently; in the opposite direction was what at first appeared to be a rock barrier in front of a cavern, but she quickly recognized that its surface was too smooth to match its scattered rocky texture.

"That barrier is clearly artificial," Ahsoka continued, "and barely in view from this angle are—"

"—a pair of speeder-scale ion cannon emplacements," Rian finished, "flanking the tunnel opening into the cavern."

"...yeah those," Ahsoka confirmed. Sareena looked hard at the edges of the cavern opening she saw, and sure enough a weapon barrel was visible on each side. She noted to herself that if those were speeder-scale, then the entire tunnel would be just wide enough to accommodate a light freighter directly; not just speeders, starfighters and shuttles.

"Someone stumbles across _those_ ," Beril commented, "you're just asking for someone to toss a bomb _past_ them. They _have_ to be near the base itself, probably even on its power grid."

"Exactly. They're well hidden until you're actually _in_ the tunnel, in their firing range; and I assume the local rock covering the barrier's supposed to hide it, and whatever's behind it, from exterior scanning."

Sareena slowly shook her head. "I don't suppose this gets us any closer to getting in."

"Not directly," Ahsoka admitted. "I mean sure, we could blow up the grate, and let everyone know where we were...if we didn't mind climbing right into the line of fire. Ion cannons that size are perfectly capable of frying organic beings _our_ size."

"Not a pleasant scent," Rian commented. He was carrying an anti-vehicle ion weapon himself, and Sareena chose not to wonder how often he'd fired it directly against personnel.

"But," Ahsoka continued without addressing Rian's comment either, "I saw something that _might_ be meaningful up on the ceiling."

Sareena looked straight up...and saw, in the projection, some sort of opening in the rock with...more rock behind it. "Is that _another_ tunnel?"

"Near as I can tell," Ahsoka confirmed. "Couldn't do much more than look at it from a couple angles, but I think it _could_ be running parallel to the big tunnel. It _might_ connect elsewhere, like down here...and possibly in the cavern behind that barrier. It's worth checking, if nothing else; if we get desperate we can head back here and try the grate. As I'm sure Beril will remind us, we don't have a ship of our own now."

"Well we _don't_!" Beril unsurprisingly reminded them.

Sareena briefly closed her eyes, trying to visualize the layout from Ahsoka's image. The running water meant the big tunnel angled downwards and its mouth was exposed to the rainfall outside, the ceiling opening being directly over the grated opening suggested they were produced by the same source of erosion during the planet's geological history, the barrier appeared short enough that the ceiling opening would allow looking over and behind it...

She opened her eyes. "It's worth a shot. Even if it doesn't actually connect all the way through, the chance to actually see what we're getting ourselves into would be worth it. Assuming it's not monitored, of course."

"Ceiling entrances are often overlooked," Rian commented.

"Especially with ceilings that weren't _built_ ," Ahsoka added. "Why would they block off the floor but not the ceiling if they knew it was there? There weren't any active power signatures from that direction that this holocam could detect, so the opening itself is _probably_ safe."

"Still worth a shot," Sareena agreed, as she put her goggles back in position.

The holographic image receded back into the device in Ahsoka's hand. "I imagine you want this back?" she asked.

"Probably a good idea," Beril agreed as she took the covert holocam back.

"Okay," Sareena declared loudly, "Rian and Beril, you two make a sweep to see if there's any other exits out of this cavern. We'll be right behind you."

"And _why_ is that?" Beril challenged.

"Because I don't want any of us isolated if we can help it," she answered flatly, "and your hair looks like it's had enough spray from this waterfall as it is."

"...whatever," Beril commented dismissively as she and Rian walked off, while Ahsoka slowly put her backpack back on.

"She's _how_ old again?" Ahsoka asked once the two of them were well out of earshot, not much of a challenge with the waterfall right there.

Sareena sighed, fully aware of how annoying Beril could get. "What'd you tell her on the way here, anyway?"

"That I deserted the Navy after Ahsoka's trial."

So Beril had heard that from _both_ of them. Convenient. "She tried making a bigger deal out of it."

Ahsoka snorted. "Yeah, I _heard_."

"We could be here all day on the subject." Whether the subject was Beril's perception or Ahsoka's. "Do you already know if the tunnel connects down here?"

"The Force guides us...which means yes, but I can't explain how or where or why."

"...seriously?" Sareena asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I thought it was crazy the first thousand times I heard it too. But I've never known the Force to be forthcoming with _context_. Like how I can tell the Inquisitor is still in orbit, and not on the surface."

Sareena took a deep breath. "But not precisely where, or why."

"Exactly. I assume he's waiting for something...meaning it'd be best if we could get off the planet without _looking_ like we're hiding something. Speaking of which, we should catch up before Beril gets more suspicious."

"' _More_ suspicious'? _Beril_? Now **that** would be a trick..."


End file.
